- TFOS Ambassadors
Switzerland
Francois Majo
François MAJO MD PhD Privat Docent
Born in France the 25
th of January 1966, married and divorced, father of three children.
I studied medicine in Paris at the University of Necker Enfants Malades (University Paris V).
I have been Trained in medical and surgical ophthalmology by Profs. Michel MONTARD and Bernard DELBOSC (University of Besançon, France), Prof. Thanh HOANG-XUAN (Hôpital Bichat-Claude-Bernard and Rothschild Foundation, Université Paris-Cité, Paris, France), and Dr. Philippe OTHENIN-GIRARD (Jules-Gonin Ophthalmic Hospital, University of Lausanne, Switzerland).
I completed my PhD in Science with Prof. Yann BARRANDON (that completed is PhD on epithelial stem cells in Harvard University with Pr. Howard GREEN that was an American scientist, and George Higginson Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School) in Paris (Ecole Normale Supérieure Ulm and Lausanne (University and Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL).
Pr. Yann BARANDON who "reformed" me and taught me new working methods and how to observe biological phenomena with a fresh eye. Our research was about corneal epithelial stem cells, and we found some stem cells in the central cornea of five different mammals and published our data in 2008 in Nature. These results should have changed the way we see the ocular surface and the renewal of the corneal epithelium, but instead of that our results have been hardly struggled. However, I continued my research based on our results and the fact that the microenvironment of cells is the key to understanding their final differentiation (epigenetic is more important than genetics and cell medium is more important than isolated stem cells).
Step by step I understood that the tear film is the medium of the epithelial cells in the ocular surface, and its quality is a key player for a healthy cornea and conjunctiva. Finally, I focused my interest on the microbiome, because it appears to be a key element to balance immunity and low grad systemic inflammation that has an impact on the ocular surface and the tear film itself.
50 peer-reviewed scientific publications, including the five most important as first or last authors in the journals: Nature, Developmental Cell, Ophthalmology, JAMA, and Gene Ther.
After 15 years as head of the anterior segment and head of the department at the Jules-Gonin Ophthalmic Hospital, University of Lausanne with the title of Privat Docent (Habilitation to supervise research), I founded my private practice in downtown Lausanne at the end of 2015. Today I perform nearly 850 operations per year including about 80 corneal grafts, treating the following pathologies: corneal disease, anterior segment surgery including the treatment of complex cases, refractive surgery using laser or intraocular implants, and dry eye.
