- TFOS Ambassadors
India
Virender Singh Sangwan
Director of Innovations and Translational Research, Dr Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital (SCEH), New Delhi
Dr Virender Sangwan is an internationally recognised clinician-scientist whose career spans more than three decades of pioneering work in cornea, ocular immunology, and regenerative medicine. Following advanced fellowship training in ocular immunology under Professor C. Stephen Foster at Harvard Medical School and in cornea-anterior segment surgery with Professor G. N. Rao at the L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), he has fundamentally reshaped ophthalmic science and patient care across the developing world.
Throughout his career, Dr Sangwan has held major institutional leadership roles. He served as Staff Ophthalmologist and Field Medical Director for ORBIS International (1993–1995), during which he established specialised corneal services at Islamia Eye Hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He later headed the Cornea Service at LVPEI (1998–2018), where he established India’s first clinical corneal stem cell service. Since joining SCEH, he has developed an amniotic membrane grafting (AMG) processing unit, advanced stem cell and "Liquid Cornea" laboratories, and a robust translational PhD research program. As a global educator, he has led surgical training and capacity-building initiatives across Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Dr Sangwan’s foremost translational breakthrough is Simple Limbal Epithelial Transplantation (SLET), a novel surgical technique developed as an accessible, single-stage alternative to cultivated limbal epithelial transplantation (CLET). Designed to treat severe chemical corneal injuries, SLET eliminates the need for expensive, specialised cell-culture laboratories, thereby reducing procedural costs and surgical turnaround times. Adopted worldwide, SLET has democratised limbal stem cell restoration globally. Expanding this focus, he currently spearheads the development of a bioengineered, off-the-shelf "Liquid Cornea" to eliminate dependence on donor tissue and alleviate global cornea waitlists.
Beyond clinical innovation, Dr Sangwan co-founded the Uveitis Society of India (President, 2010–2013) and the Asia Cornea Society (ACS), where he currently serves as President. He also served as Associate Editor of the
Indian Journal of Ophthalmology (2000–2006). In recognition of his scientific breakthroughs, he received India’s premier science honour, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (CSIR, 2006), the National Technology Award (DBT, 2007), and the Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.
