Tibor Juhász

Tibor Juhasz is an American-Hungarian physicist and entrepreneur. He is a professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine,

Juhasz is best known for his work on medical applications of lasers. He and ophthalmology professor Ron Kurtz are the inventors of IntraLASIK, a device which uses femtosecond lasers to prepare the eye for LASIK surgery. IntraLASIK has since become standard procedure when performing LASIK surgery. Juhasz has also developed similar devices to treat cataracts and glaucoma. His third, ViaLase, is currently active; its product, a device which uses femtosecond lasers to treat glaucoma, is currently in the final stages of clinical trials.

Juhasz is the recipient of the 2002 Berthold Leibinger Innovation Prize for the development and commercialization of femtosecond laser surgical technology. He also received the 2022 Golden Goose Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Association of American Universities for introducing femtosecond laser technology to ophthalmology.

Career

Early career Juhasz began his academic career in 1982 as a research assistant in the Department of External Physics at the Technical University of Budapest (BME). In 1985, was made an assistant professor. He stayed at BME for two more years, before leaving in 1987 to complete a postdoc with the Department of Physics at the University of California, Irvine. It was during this time that Juhasz began to investigate the interactions between ultrashort laser pulses and matter. Three years later, in 1990, he was promoted to the role of Assistant Researcher Physicist.

Femtosecond lasers in corneal surgery Juhasz left UC Irvine in 1994. Two years later, in 1996, he met ophthamologist Ron Kurtz at a conference in Toronto. At the time, Kurtz was collaborating with a team of researchers at the University of Michigan (UMich) on a project investigating the potential applications of femotsecond lasers in ophthalmology. Juhasz, who was investigating the use of picosecond lasers for eye surgery, struck up a conversation with Kurtz, and soon Juhasz was invited to join the UMich team.

In 1997, the two men founded the company IntraLase to commercialize IntraLASIK. Juhasz initially served as the company's vice president for R&D until 2002, when he became its chief technology officer (CTO). Furthermore, his work established that employing femtosecond laser technology for corneal transplantation offers distinct benefits in comparison to conventional methods.

Femtosecond laser cataract surgery In 2007, IntraLase was acquired by Advanced Medical Optics for $808 million. Later research by Juhasz would demonstrate that the mechanical strength of femtosecond laser capsulotomy is on par with that of manual capsulotomy, but with a significantly reduced variability in strength. Consequently, these studies significantly decreased the likelihood and rate of capsular tears and other complications.

Juhasz and Kurtz once again founded a company, LenSx Lasers, to commercialize their new invention.

Femtosecond laser treatment for glaucoma After leaving Alcon, Juhasz turned his attention towards another potential ophthalmic use for femtosecond lasers: treating glaucoma. Juhasz had made his first attempt at developing a glaucoma treatment the mid-1990s, when he undertook a research project supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that aimed to reduce intraocular pressure by establishing partial thickness channels from the front chamber to the area beneath the conjunctiva through the sclera. Although the channels proved to be efficient, his early animal experiments showed a swift healing response, which subsequently constrained the long-term efficacy of these treatments.

Even at the time, Juhasz had believed that these issues could be resolved once femtosecond laser technology had sufficiently improved. Additionally, he showed in preserved human cadaver eyes that the femtosecond laser-generated drainage pathways have the potential to reduce intraocular pressure.

However, by 2017, the technology had improved sufficiently to allow his team to develop a treatment.

Awards and honors 2002 – Berthold Leibinger Innovation Prize, Berthold Leibinger Stiftung 2022 – Golden Goose Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science and Association of American Universities 2022 – Entrepreneurial Leader of the Year, University of California, Irvine

Selected articles