Jennifer E. Thorne

JENNIFER E. THORNE, MD, PhD, the inaugural Cross Family Professor of Ophthalmology, is a Professor of Ophthalmology and Epidemiology and the Chief of the Division of Ocular Immunology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Thorne received her medical degree at the University of Virginia and completed her ophthalmology residency at the University of Pennsylvania. She did her uveitis fellowship at Wilmer under the mentorship of Dr. Douglas Jabs and joined the faculty at Wilmer in 2002 after receiving a K23 award for clinical research. During that time, she trained in clinical trial design and conduct with Dr. Curtis Meinert and completed her PhD in epidemiology at the Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2006.

Dr. Thorne is an internationally recognized, board-certified ophthalmologist and expert in the evaluation and management of patients with uveitis and other related immune-mediated ocular disorders. She has directed the Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid clinic, a multi-disciplinary specialty clinic designed to evaluate and treat patients with mucous membrane pemphigoid and other cicatrizing conjunctival diseases. She was the Deputy Director of the Coordinating Center of the Studies of Ocular Complication of AIDS and currently is a member of the Steering Committee for the North American AIDS Cohort Collaboration on Research and Design (NA-ACCORD).

She serves as the Medical Officer for the Multicenter Uveitis Steroid Treatment (MUST) Trial and Follow-Up Study and is protocol chair for the newest MUST-sponsored clinical trial investigating steroid therapies for uveitic macular edema. She is an original member of the Executive and Steering Committees of the Standardization of Uveitis Nomenclature Working Group. She was recently chosen as President-Elect of the American Uveitis Society.

Dr. Thorne’s research interests include clinical research into white dot syndromes, including birdshot chorioretinitis, multifocal choroiditis, and punctate inner choroiditis. She also studies juvenile idiopathic arthritis-related uveitis and treatment outcomes of immunosuppressive drug therapy. She has been invited to lecture nationally and internationally and has published over 190 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Thorne is the director of the fellowship program in uveitis at Wilmer and has trained numerous ophthalmologists who have become leaders in the field. She has been appointed Vice Chair for fellowship compliance in the Association of University Professors in Ophthalmology Fellowship Compliance Committee. She is the recipient of the Academy of Ophthalmology’s Achievement and Senior Achievement Awards and other honors.