Cynthia Owsley, Ph.D., MSPH, professor and Nathan E. Miles Endowed Chair of Ophthalmology, has been named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of her pioneering work transforming clinical approaches to age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Nominated by the Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Owsley was honored for the development of a dark adaptometer, a diagnostic device that measures how quickly the eye recovers sensitivity after exposure to bright light. This recovery process, known as dark adaptation, is significantly delayed in adults with early AMD. Owsley’s research helped establish this delay as a functional biomarker for early disease detection, offering clinicians a powerful tool for identifying at-risk patients sooner.

The concept began in the late 1990s, when Owsley and Greg Jackson, Ph.D., former post-doctoral student and department faculty member, began exploring whether delayed dark adaptation could signal the earliest stages of AMD. Their work led to a U.S. patent, granted in 2017, and ultimately to the development of AdaptDx, a commercially available dark adaptometer resulting from nearly two decades of collaborative research and innovation.

Reflecting on the journey, Owsley noted, “It has taken a long time to get to this point, which is a seminal moment in this effort. From the initial concept to securing funding, arranging licensing of the technology and conducting clinical studies took some 16 years. Today, there is a commercially viable device that research institutions such as UAB can use to evaluate treatments for early AMD that might make a difference in people’s lives. It’s gratifying that, after 16 years, our hypothesis was validated.”

Owsley earned her Ph.D. in experimental psychology with a specialization in visual perception at Cornell University, where she was a pre-doctoral fellow with the National Science Foundation. She completed postdoctoral training in vision and aging at Northwestern University and later earned her Master of Science in Public Health in epidemiology at the UAB School of Public Health. Since joining the UAB Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences in 1986, she has remained a global leader in AMD research, an influential figure in the development of innovative diagnostic technologies, and winner of the Proctor Medal from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in 2025 alongside Christine Curcio, Ph.D. This prestigious award is presented to outstanding researchers in the basic or clinical sciences as applied to ophthalomology.