- TFOS global ambassadors and international chapter affiliate
Vatican City
Stefano Bonini
Stefano Bonini is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Rome Campus Bio-Medico, Italy. He graduated with a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Rome (1977), and obtained his degree in Ophthalmology (1981) and Allergy and Clinical Immunology (1984) at the University of Rome La Sapienza. Dr. Bonini was trained in ocular allergy by Dr. Mathea R. Allansmith at the Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston, USA from 1985 to 1987, and he served as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and was the Scientific Director of the G.B. Bietti Eye Foundation in Rome from 1985 to 2002. In 2002, he was appointed Chairman of the Eye Clinic at the University of Rome Campus Bio-Medico where he trained several Residents. Since 2004, Dr. Bonini has been an Associate Senior Scientist at the Schepens Eye Research Institute at Harvard Medical School in Boston (USA), and is also serving as Senior Ophthalmologist at the Vatican City. He has authored 346 papers and his main field of interest is inflammation of the ocular surface and in particular ocular allergy and dry eye. Since January 2018, he has served as Associate Editor of “The Ocular Surface” Journal and was part of the original TFOS DEWS Report and the sequel, TFOS DEWS II, collaborating on the Dry Eye Guidelines. Among Dr. Bonini’s most original papers are his studies on the pathophysiology of ocular allergic disease and the detection of the late-phase allergic reaction in the conjunctiva, the treatment of neurotrophic corneal ulcers with nerve growth factor, and the description of the conjunctiva and cornea stem cells and their clinical transplantation in severe cornea alkali burns.