Marie-José Tassignon, MD, PhD was appointed Chief of the Department of Ophthalmology of the Antwerp University Hospital and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Antwerp in 1991. In 2007, Dr. Tassignon became Medical Director of the Antwerp University Hospital. She has been Full Professor at the University of Antwerp since 2003.
Prof Tassignon was President of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons from 2004 until 2007 and President of the European Board of Ophthalmology from 2007 until 2008. She is a member of 18 international societies in ophthalmology and a board member for 5 of the societies. She was elected Chair “L” of the International Academy of Ophthalmology in 2007 and was elected Chair “V” of the European Academy of Ophthalmology in 2008. She became a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium in 2009. She is president of the prestigious Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis (2018-2022).
Prof Tassignon has had seven patents approved. New patent applications are in the pipeline to improve surgical techniques in vitreous pathologies and patient outcomes suffering from floaters. Prof Tassignon is author/co-author of 248 publications and 23 chapters in 21 books. She is also involved in international ophthalmological congresses and in a few of them she acts as a Board Member. Prof Tassignon is an international renowned ophthalmologist and has received many global awards in recognition of her contribution in the international ophthalmological field. Unlike many other departments of ophthalmology, Tassignon has attracted engineers, physicists and paramedical researchers to complement the medical staff at the Antwerp Department of Ophthalmology.
As an ophthalmic surgeon, Prof Tassignon is dedicated to patients from all age ranges. In 2004 and 2008 she operated on King Albert II of Belgium successfully for a cataract in respectively his right and left eye. She used her patented technique, Bag-in-the Lens implantation that avoids posterior capsule opacity (which is the main complication after cataract surgery).
Sorcha Ni Dhubhghaill received her undergraduate degree and PhD from the Trinity College Dublin before her residency training in the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital and St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin. During her training she was awarded the Duke Elder prize for ophthalmology, the Edna Walls Research medal for ophthalmology. She is currently a consultant cataract and cornea surgeon in both the University Hospital of Antwerp and the Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ophthalmic Surgery and is also the Principal Investigator for a Horizon 2020 grant in limbal stem cell therapy. Her current research focus is Bag-in-the-lens cataract surgery and corneal stem cells and endothelial transplantations.
Luc Van Os, MD, has been consultant surgeon in the Antwerp University Hospital since 2013 and trained in the same center. His main focus areas are uveitis, cataract, and pediatric cataract. He has been performing bag-in-the-lens cataract surgery since the very beginning of his surgical career, thus considering this technique as a standard technique for intraocular lens implantation in cataract treatment.
