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Auffarth keeps David Apple’s legacy alive in heart of Europe
The Apple Lab is now in full activity at Heidelberg University, continuing and extending the research work of its creator.
Nearly 2 years after relocating to Heidelberg University, Germany, the David J. Apple International Laboratory for Ocular Pathology is a fully active research center, continuing and extending the legacy of its founder.
“The core of the lab’s activity is the research on intraocular devices, covering all aspects from pathology to lab work to clinical studies, and now including the development of biomaterials. We have partnerships with other research institutes located in Heidelberg, such as the university’s Centre for Molecular Biology and Centre for Biochemistry,” Gerd U. Auffarth, MD, chairman of the Eye Department and head of the Apple Lab, said in an interview with Ocular Surgery News.
Auffarth, an OSN Europe Edition Board Member, was a fellow of David J. Apple, MD, in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.A., in the early 1990s and continued their close collaboration upon his return to Germany.
“We developed many projects together,” Auffarth said. “I sent students to do their fellowship with him, and he came to Germany several times. David liked this country and spoke German fluently.”
Shortly after Apple died in August 2011, his wife, Ann, contacted Auffarth and said that it was her husband’s wish to leave his vast collection of books, studies, data and laboratory samples to him.
“I came back from Charleston with 300 boxes in a big container. We unpacked and organized this huge amount of scientific material in a dedicated space of the eye department, and then we started raising funds for research,” Auffarth said.
History of the lab
Apple’s studies on IOL pathology started in 1980 at the University of Utah, with an enucleated eye specimen of a patient who had become blind due to IOL-related complications. His research created the basis for the understanding of how these “foreign bodies” affected the delicate environment of the eye and for the progressive improvement of their design and materials. By modifying the original video technique of Kensaku Miyake, MD, he created the Miyake-Apple posterior video/photographic technique, which became an indispensable tool to analyze the performance of IOLs in cadaver eyes from a posterior view, as though looking out on the world through the lens and cornea.
“The Center for Intraocular Lens Research, which he established there with Randall J. Olson, MD, grew rapidly. A great number of explanted IOLs and autopsy eyes were sent to the lab, and by 1988, he had received and studied more than 1,000 of both types of specimens,” Auffarth said.
In the same year, Apple moved to Charleston and continued his work there as chairman of the Storm Eye Institute of the Medical University of South Carolina. Later, back in Utah, he became director of the David J. Apple Laboratories for Ophthalmic Biodevices Research at the newly founded Moran Eye Center.
Forced by illness to retire from academic positions, Apple spent his last years on Sullivan’s Island, near Charleston, where he set up the lab again on the coast.
New location
“Heidelberg University, the oldest university in Germany and the first to have a medical faculty, seems the ideal location to perpetuate [Apple’s] work,” Auffarth said.
Initial research was made possible by a grant from a German foundation and the contribution of eye banks, which provided the eye specimens.
“We are now developing mutually beneficial relationships with industries. We offer a wide range of services for testing IOLs, both at the preliminary development and postmarket stages. All this is growing rapidly, with many industries giving us research projects and lens development ideas,” Auffarth said.
The lab is also expanding to the testing of other intraocular devices, such as ophthalmic viscosurgical devices, and laser technology, including femtosecond laser.
“For instance, research fellows may do studies on capsulotomy with different lasers. It’s not just IOLs,” he said.
The official opening of the lab will take place shortly and will reunite the “Apple Korps,” as Apple liked to call his research fellows.
“David Apple was the scientific father of many of us, and we want his name to be remembered for a long time in the future. Taking care of his heritage is the best tribute we can pay to him,” Auffarth said. – by Michela Cimberle
- For more information:
- Gerd U. Auffarth, MD, can be reached at the University of Heidelberg, Department of Ophthalmology, INF 400, Heidelberg, D-69120, Germany; +49-62-21-56-66-31; fax: +49-62-21-56-17-26; email: gerd_auffarth@med.uni-heidelberg.de.
Disclosure: Auffarth is a consultant for Allergan, AMO and Bausch + Lomb/Technolas Perfect Vision. He receives research grants from Alcon, Allergan, AMO, Bausch + Lomb, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Dr. Schmidt Intraocularlinsen, Novartis, Oculentis, PhysIOL, PowerVision and Rayner. He receives travel grants from Alcon, AMO, Bausch + Lomb/Technolas Perfect Vision, Bayer, Carl Zeiss Meditec, Geuder, Novartis, Oculentis, Ophtec, PhysIOL and Rayner. He receives lecture honorariums from Alcon, AMO, Bausch + Lomb/Technolas Perfect Vision, Dr. Schmidt Intraocularlinsen, Oculentis and Rayner.