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

Kim BJ, Grossman M, Aleman TS, Song D, Cousins K, McMillan CT, Saludades A, Yu Y, Lee EB; Wolk D, Deerlin VV; Shaw L; Ying G-S, Irwin DJ: Retinal photoreceptor layer thickness has disease specificity and distinguishes FTLD-Tau from biomarker determined Alzheimer’s Disease Neurobiology of Aging 125 : 74-82,2023.

Aggarwal C, Maity AP, Bauml JM, Long Q, Aleman TS, Ciunci C, D’ Avella C, Volpe M, Anderson E, McCormick Jones L, Sun L, Singh AP, Marmarelis ME, Cohen RB, Langer CJ, Amaravadi R: A Phase 2 open label trial of binimetinib and hydroxychloroquine in patients with advanced KRAS mutant non-small cell lung cancer The Oncologist [Epub ahead of print] : DOI: 10.1097/ICB.0000000000001294,2023.

Silson E, Baker CI, Aleman TS; Maguire AM; Bennett J, Ashtari M: Motion-selective areas V5/MT and MST appear resistant to deterioration in choroideremia NeuroImage 38 : 103384,2023.

Bulas S, Bedoukian EC, O’Neil EC, Krantz ID, Yum SW, Liu GT, Aleman TS.: Ocular biomarkers of riboflavin transporter deficiency Journal of Neuro Ophthalmology 43 : 110-115,2023.

Bennett J, Aleman EM, Maguire KH, Nadelmann J, Weber ML, Maguire WM, Maja A, O’Neil EC, Maguire AM, Miller AJ, Aleman TS: Optimization and validation of a virtual reality Orientation and Mobility Test for inherited retinal degenerations Transl Vis Sci Technol 12 : 28,2023.

Aleman TS, O’Neil EC, Uyhazi KE, Parchinski KM, Santos AJ, Weber ML, Colclough SP, Billek AS, Zhu X, Leroy BP, Bedoukian EC: Fleck-like Lesions in CEP290-Associated Leber Congenital Amaurosis Opthalmic Genetics 43 : 824-833,2022.

Aleman TS, Huckfeldt RM, Serrano LW, Pearson DJ, Vergilio GK, McCague S, Marshall KA, Ashtari M, Doan TM, Weigel-DiFranco CA, Biron BS, Wen X-H, Chung DC, Liu E, Ferenchak K, Morgan JIW, Pierce EA, Eliott D, Bennett J, Comander J, Maguire AM: AAV2-hCHM subretinal delivery to the macula in choroideremia: Two year interim results of an ongoing phase I/II gene therapy trial. Ophthalmology 129 (10): 1177-1191,2022.

Bedoukian EC, O’Neil EC, Aleman TS: RP1-associated recessive retinitis pigmentosa caused by paternal uniparental disomy Ophthalmic Genetics 43 (4): 555-560,2022.

Nikonov S, Aravand P., Lyubarsky A., Nikonov R., Willett K., Aleman TS, Phelps NT, Shpychak I, Wei Z, Maguire AM, Ramachandran PS, Bennett J: Restoration of vision and retinal responses after AAV-mediated optogenetic therapy in blind dogs Transl Vis Sci Technol 11 (5): 24,2022.

Miller CG, Brucker AJ, Perry LM, Kim BJ, Martin ME, Frey NV, Aleman TS: Outer retinopathy and microangiopathy in acute myelogenous leukemia Retina Cases and Brief Reports [Epub ahead of print] : DOI: 10.1097/ICB.0000000000001294 ,2022.

View all publications

Academic Contact Information

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