Who we are

Dr. Humayun is a world-renowned ophthalmologist, engineer, scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. For his accomplishment was awarded one of our nation’s highest award, the US Presidential Medal for Technology and Innovation in 2015 by President Obama.  He also holds the distinction of being the only ophthalmologist to date to be elected a member of both U.S. National Academies of Medicine and Engineering. 

Dr. Humayun is a pioneer in restoring sight to the blind. He is the co-inventor of the Argus Series retina implants, which are manufactured by Second Sight Medical Products Inc (publicly-traded on NASDAQ), and to date the Argus II is the only implant approved by FDA to restore sight to patients with photoreceptor loss due to retinitis pigmentosa. The Argus Series implants have also been the attention of many news media across the world and have garnered many awards including being named by Time Magazine among the top 10 inventions of 2013. More recently, he co-founded Regenerative Patch Technology, LLC, a company that has advanced the idea of stem cell derived implants into the clinic for the treatment for age-related macular degeneration. In addition to the above two companies, he has co-founded more than ten companies (mostly focused in Ophthalmology). 

Dr. Humayun has more than 125 issued patents and for his accomplishments has been elected into the National Academy of Inventors.In addition, he has more than 250 peer reviewed publications and a google h-index  (productivity and citation impact) of greater than 90.  

Dr. Clegg is professor and chair of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at UC Santa Barbara.  He earned his BS degree in biochemistry at UC Davis and his PhD in  biochemistry at UC Berkeley, where he used emerging methods in  recombinant DNA to study the sensory transduction systems of bacteria.  As a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Scholar at UCSF, he studied neural  development and regeneration. He has continued this avenue of research  since joining the UCSB faculty, with studies of extracellular matrix and  integrin function in the developing eye. His current emphasis is in  stem cell research, with a focus on developing therapies for ocular  disease. Dr. Clegg is the recipient of the UCSB Distinguished Teaching  Award in the Physical Sciences, the Pacific Coast Business Times  Champions in Health Care Award, the National Eye Institute Audacious  Goals award, and served as Chair of the Department of Molecular,  Cellular and Developmental Biology from 2004-2009. He has been a  Frontiers of Vision Research Lecturer at the National Eye Institute, a  Keynote Lecturer at the Stem Cells World Congress, and a TEDx speaker.  He is founder and Co-Director of the UCSB Center for Stem Cell Biology  and Engineering, and has served on advisory boards for the California  Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the National Institutes of  Health Center for Regenerative Medicine. He is a Co-Principal  Investigator of The California Project to Cure Blindness, a  multi-disciplinary effort to develop a stem cell therapy for Age-Related  Macular Degeneration.  

Dr. Lebkowski has been actively involved in the development of cell and gene therapies since 1986 and is President of Regenerative Patch Technologies (RPT).  In this role, Dr.  Lebkowski oversees all of RPT’s operations. 

From 2013-2017, Jane Lebkowski also served as Chief Scientific Officer and President of R&D at Asterias Biotherapeutics Inc, where she headed all preclinical, product, regulatory, and clinical development of Asterias’ regenerative medicine and dendritic cell based-cancer immunotherapy products.  Prior to joining Asterias, Dr. Lebkowski was Senior Vice President of Regenerative Medicine and Chief Scientific Officer at Geron Corporation. Dr. Lebkowski led Geron’s human embryonic stem cell program from 1998-2012 and was responsible for all research, preclinical development, product development, manufacturing, and clinical development activities supporting cell-based therapies for several regenerative medicine indications including spinal cord injury and cardiovascular disease. From 1986-1998, Dr. Lebkowski was Vice President of Research and Development at Applied Immune Sciences where she directed activities to develop T cell based cancer immunotherapies for solid tumors, hematologic malignancies and AIDs.  Following the acquisition of Applied Immune Sciences by Rhone Poulenc Rorer (RPR, currently Sanofi), Dr. Lebkowski remained at RPR as Vice President of Discovery Research.  During Dr. Lebkowski’s tenure at RPR, she coordinated preclinical investigations of gene therapy approaches for treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease and nervous system disorders, and directed vector formulations and delivery development.  Dr. Lebkowski received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Princeton University in 1982, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Genetics, Stanford University in 1986.

Dr. Lebkowski has published over 80 peer reviewed publication and has 13 issued U.S. patents. Dr. Lebkowski has served on the board of Directors of the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy and on numerous scientific advisory boards and professional committees including those supported by ASGCT and ISSCR.

Dr. Johnson brings over 25 years of research experience in ocular cell biology to RPT. He previously served as Director of the Center for the Study of Macular Degeneration, Director of the Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering, and Associate Director of the Neuroscience Research Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His contributions to the field include (1) Identification and characterization of Pigment Epithelial Derived Factor (PEDF), (2)  Implication of inflammatory processes, including complement activation, in the pathogenesis of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), (3) Identification of genetic associations and molecular pathways associated with AMD pathogenesis, and (4) Development of in vitro and animal models of ocular drusen formation and complement-mediated pathogenesis in the eye. Dr. Johnson was directly involved in the development of the stem cell differentiation processes and the quality assessments paradigms that serve as the basis for CPCB-RPE1, the cell-based therapeutic for AMD now in development by RPT. He serves as  Chief Scientific Officer for RPT, overseeing its R&D efforts in manufacturing process improvement and its manufacturing operations for CPCB-RPE1 clinical trials.