Description of Research Expertise

Dr. Aleman has extensive expertise in the study of hereditary retinal degenerations. He is part of the Retinal Degeneration Center at Scheie Eye Institute and the CAROT center of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Pennsylvania. His research expertise includes state-of-the-art psychophysical, electrophysiological and imaging studies in patients and animal models of the human disease. Most of the studies in which Dr. Aleman is an investigator are aimed to lead patients with these incurable retinal degenerations into clinical trials as well as in the detailed characterization of patients, both children and adults, with these conditions.

Clinical Trials
Dr. Aleman is a co-principal investigator in an ongoing gene therapy trial for choroideremia.

Key Words
Hereditary Retinal Degenerations, retinitis pigmentosa, choroideremia, cone rod dystrophy, optical coherence tomography, electroretinogram

Selected Publications

Waldman AT, Sollee JR, Datta R, Lavery AM, Liu G, Aleman TS, Banwell BL, Gaetz WC: Structural correlates of atypical visual and motor cortical oscillations in pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis. Hum Brain Mapp 10 (41): 4299-4313,2020.

MacDonald IM, Moen C, Duncan JL, Tsang SH, Cehajic-Kapetanovic J, Aleman TS: Perspectives on gene therapy: Choroideremia represents a challenging model for the treatment of other inherited retinal degenerations. Trans Vis Sci Tech 9 : 17,2020.

Uyhazi KE, Aravand P, Bell BA, Wei Z, Leo L, Serrano LW, Pearson DJ, Shpylchak I, Pham J, Vasireddy V, Bennett J, Aleman TS: Treatment Potential for LCA5-Associated Leber Congenital Amaurosis. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 61 (5): 30,2020.

Weed L, Ammar MJ, Zhou S, Wei Z, Serrano LW, Sun J, Lee V, Maguire AM, Bennett J, Aleman TS: Safety of Same-Eye Subretinal Sequential Readministration of AAV2-hRPE65v2 in Non-human Primates. Mol Ther Methods Clin Dev 3 (15): 133-148,2019.

Garnai, Sarah J; Brinkmeier, Michelle L; Emery, Ben; Aleman, Tomas S; Pyle, Louise C; Veleva-Rotse, Biliana; Sisk, Robert A; Rozsa, Frank W; Ozel, Ayse Bilge; Li, Jun Z; Moroi, Sayoko E; Archer, Steven M; Lin, Cheng-Mao; Sheskey, Sarah; Wiinikka-Buesser, Laurel; Eadie, James; Urquhart, Jill E; Black, Graeme C M; Othman, Mohammad I; Boehnke, Michael; Sullivan, Scot A; Skuta, Gregory L; Pawar, Hemant S; Katz, Alexander E; Huryn, Laryssa A; Hufnagel, Robert B; Genomic Ascertainment Cohort; Camper, Sally A; Richards, Julia E; Prasov, Lev.: Variants in myelin regulatory factor (MYRF) cause autosomal dominant and syndromic nanophthalmos in humans and retinal degeneration in mice. PLoS Genetics 15 (5): e1008130,2019.

Nti AA, Serrano LW, Sandhu HS, Uyhazi KE, Edelstein ID, Zhou EJ, Bowman S, Song D, Gangadhar TC, Schuchter LM, Mitnick S, Huang A, Nichols CW, Amaravadi RK, Kim BJ, Aleman TS: FREQUENT SUBCLINICAL MACULAR CHANGES IN COMBINED BRAF/MEK INHIBITION WITH HIGH-DOSE HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE AS TREATMENT FOR ADVANCED METASTATIC BRAF MUTANT MELANOMA: Preliminary Results From a Phase I/II Clinical Treatment Trial. Retina (Philadelphia, Pa.) 39 (3): 502-513,2019.

Morgan JIW, Young G, Han G, Bennett J, Maguire A, Tuten W, Aleman T, Brainard D: Visual function at the atrophic border in choroideremia assessed with adaptive optics microperimetry. Ophthalmology Retina 3 : 888-899,2019.

Aleman TS, Uyhazi KE, Serrano LW; Vasireddy V, Bowman SJ, Ammar MJ, Pearson DJ, Maguire AM, Bennett J: RDH12 Mutations Cause a Severe Retinal Degeneration With Relatively Spared Rod Function. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science 59 (12): 5225-5226,2018.

Bryant Laura, Lozynska Olga, Marsh Anson, Papp Tyler E, van Gorder Lucas, Serrano Leona W, Gai Xiaowu, Maguire Albert M, Aleman Tomas S, Bennett Jean: Identification of a novel pathogenic missense mutation in using whole exome sequencing: a case report. The British journal of ophthalmology : 2018.

Silson Edward H, Aleman Tomas S, Willett Aimee, Serrano Leona W, Pearson Denise J, Rauschecker Andreas M, Maguire Albert M, Baker Chris I, Bennett Jean, Ashtari Manzar: Comparing Clinical Perimetry and Population Receptive Field Measures in Patients with Choroideremia. Investigative ophthalmology & visual science 59 (8): 3249-3258,2018.

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Academic Contact Information

Scheie Eye Institute
51 North 39th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Phone: 215-614-4100
Patient appointments: 800-789-7366