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J Ophthal Inflamm Infect (2011) 1:3–5DOI 10.1007/s12348-010-0006-6 Remembering Professor David BenEzra,M.D., Ph.D., 1942–2008 Received: 28 July 2010 / Accepted: 6 September 2010 / Published online: 17 November 2010 # The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com University, determined to attend the medical school, despitethe many hurdles he had to overcome. David lovedscientific research and at that early phase in his career hewas already fully committed to becoming a physician-scientist, and getting a Ph.D. along with his M.D. degreewas an obvious approach. It was a pleasure having him inthe lab, a young man full of enthusiasm, original thinking,and fantastic dexterity and capacity to perform at the bench.
We quickly established a close friendship and Davidbecame a part of my family. After completing his Ph.D.
in 1969, he established an immunology lab in theDepartment of Oncology at Hadassah Hospital, but lucky forall of us, he then met and married Judy, the daughter David was my first Ph.D. student, joining my newly of Professor Michaelson, the renowned ophthalmologist.
established lab in 1966 at the Hebrew University— Professor Michaelson introduced David to the exciting world Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. He was accepted of ophthalmology and David shifted his enthusiasm and at that time to the Medical School, after spending 1 year as scientific curiosity to learn about the wonders of the eye.
a student in another Faculty. David was born in Morocco After completing his residency in ophthalmology, David and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1956. The was sent by the State of Israel and Hadassah Hospital, to family settled in a small village and David had to commute help patients with eye diseases in Ethiopia and Malawi.
daily to attend school. After serving the mandatory tour of After returning to Jerusalem, he was invited by Dr. Carl duty in the Israeli military, he came to the Hebrew Kupfer, the founder of the National Eye Institute (NEI),with a mission to establish a new lab dealing with ocularimmunology. David then contacted me with a suggestion tojoin the NEI, as an immunologist in the new lab he established. I accepted the offer and David introduced me Laboratory of Immunology, National Eye Institute, NIH,Bethesda, MD 20892, USA to the amazing organ, the eye, a decade after I introduced him to the exciting world of immunology. Once again,David and I could collaborate and keep being in touch continuously; particularly during a sabbatical he spent at Department of Ophthalmology, Miguel Hernandez University,Alicante, Spain the NEI, the annual ARVO, and other meetings.
Back at the Hadassah Hospital, David focused his clinical efforts on pediatric ophthalmology. He founded a clinical Unit and established a lab where he could carry out research related to his clinical activities and other scientific issues he was interested in. One topic he had always been excited about dealt with angiogenesis, a process that received little attention at that time, but its importance for ophthalmology was realized by Professor Michaelson, whohypothesized then that the angiogenic process is mediatedby a molecule he named “Factor X”. David took over thisstudy, developing new methods to dissect the process andanalyzing a large number of compounds for their capacityto inhibit angiogenesis. Decades later, “Factor X,” wasidentified to be “VEGF”, a molecule that is currently thetarget of successful therapies of major eye diseases. Otherstudies David carried out had dealt with a wide range oftopics that included uveitis and the involvement ofinflammation in eye diseases, immunosuppressive agents,drug delivery, unique issues of pediatric ophthalmology, as David BenEzra and the creation of the International well as genetics of eye disease. More recently, David collaborated with Francine Behar-Cohen, developing novelmolecular biology approaches for treatment of eye disease.
The idea of starting the international symposium on ocular David was an outstanding ophthalmologist, excelling in inflammation occurred in a meeting that took place between ocular surgery, an area in which he often challenged Jorge Alio and David BenEzra in 1989, during the initial traditional concepts and introduced innovative ideas. He launch of the use of cyclosporine in ophthalmology. Jorge saved vision of a countless number of patients, mostly and David met there for the first time and this marked the children. His reputation attracted patients from all over beginning of a longstanding friendship. At that time, the Israel, as well as other countries in the Middle East. He was launch of cyclosporine A in Spain and the new topical anti- devoted to his patients and their families and his office inflammatory non-steroidal medications created a space, in walls were covered with their letters of appreciation.
the opinion of Jorge, for an international meeting in which David’s achievements were well recognized by the the use of new pharmacological agents and a comprehen- ophthalmological community. He was invited to serve as a sive review of the issues related to immunology, inflam- Professor at the Universities and Hospitals in Paris and as a mation, and ophthalmology could take place. With these Visiting Professor in several universities in Europe and the ideas, the first international symposium on ocular inflam- USA and as a keynote speaker in numerous meetings mation was organized in Alicante in 1990 (Fig. shows the around the globe. He received several major scientific cover page of that meeting). The meeting was a great awards, including the Alcon Research Award (1988). He success with over 250 participants and important interac- served on the editorial boards of five journals and was the tions with the pharmacological industry. A decision was author of five books, more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, made to organize a second symposium 2 years later in Jerusalem. The meeting in Jerusalem was an even greater David devoted much of his time and energy to promote success with over 400 participants, a very fruitful scientific international sharing of knowledge and information on program and the creation of a scientific committee. (Fig. ophthalmology and vision research. He conceived the idea shows the cover page of the meeting in Jerusalem). The of an international organization that would unite ophthal-mologists and vision scientists, and together with Jorge Alio, he founded the International Ocular Inflammation second international symposiumon ocular inflammation Society (IOIS), as described below in detail by Jorge. Other major achievements have been the convening of theMichaelson symposia on ocular circulation and neovascu-larization and being the Chairman and the organizer of fiveinternational panels of experts who authored the guidelinesfor diagnosis and treatment of major eye conditions.
David’s contributions were recognized by having himelected to the Presidency of IOIS (1992–1998) and theMediterranean Ophthalmological Society (1998–2000), aswell as membership on numerous international scientificcommittees.
idea of creating a society was on the minds of everybody at partnership with the publisher of the OII journal was the meeting and a decision was made to go ahead with it.
discontinued due to certain disagreements. The idea to The leaders of the society were as follows: David BenEzra, create a new journal for the Society was on the minds of President; Jorge Alio, Chairman; Manabu Mochizuki, David and the other leaders of the Society and the decision General Secretary; Christian de Courten, Treasurer. The to do it was made during the Prague symposium, with the society was named IOIS and was created as a charity new journal being named the Journal of Ophthalmic institution in Spain, with a global projection, bylaws, and Inflammation and Infection. It is just to demonstrate that with a journal, the Ocular Immunology and Inflammation destiny exists that this obituary is published in the first issue of the new journal of the IOIS, so beloved by David Since then, IOIS meetings have been organized every 2 years, in Fukuoka (1994), London (1996), Amsterdam(1998), Istanbul (2000), Padova (2003), Granada (2005),Paris (2007), and Prague (2009). The IOIS currently has This article is distributed under the terms of the 768 members, from 50 countries and has organized 10 Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which per- international symposia. The upcoming symposium will take mits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any place in Goa, India, in November 2011. Eventually, the medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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