Dr. Mark Pennesi is a renowned ophthalmologist and faculty member at the Casey Eye Institute. His research focuses on developing novel treatments for inherited retinal diseases, particularly exploring new drugs to upregulate protective growth factors in the retina. He has been recognized with career development awards from Research to Prevent Blindness and the Foundation Fighting Blindness, as well as the ARVO/Alcon Early Clinician Scientist Award and the Alcon Young Investigator Award.

Dr. Pennesi earned his M.D./Ph.D. at Baylor College of Medicine, where he focused on retinal degeneration. He completed his ophthalmology residency at the University of California, San Francisco, followed by an ophthalmic genetics fellowship under Dr. Richard Weleber. During his residency, he received the Hogan/Garcia award for best resident research project. He also holds a BS in biomedical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated summa cum laude and received the Herman P. Schwann award in bioengineering.