Robert N. Frank, M.D., professor of Ophthalmology and Anatomy/Cell Biology for the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Kresge Eye Institute, has been invited to give the Optic UK Lecture at the 2010 Congress of the prestigious Royal College of Ophthalmologists in England.

"It's always an honor for anyone from the United States to be invited to speak before a distinguished group 'across the pond,'" Dr. Frank said. "I'm especially honored because this is apparently the second of these named lectures before the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, the first of which was given by a very distinguished colleague and good friend, Alfred Sommer, M.D., the former dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health."

The lecture is scheduled for May 27, 2010. The annual lecture, said Heidi Booth-Adams, head of the college's Scientific Department, was established via a donation from Optic UK, which represents the ophthalmic industry in the United Kingdom. The aim of the lecture, she said, is to "bring eminent overseas speakers to the college congress to enhance the program."

While he has not yet determined the topic of his lecture, Dr. Frank said he may speak on the "mystery of macular edema."

The research of Dr. Frank, who is the Robert S. Jampel professor of Ophthalmology for the School of Medicine, includes animal models of retinal and choroidal vessel disease, retinal and choroidal new blood vessel formation, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. The Yale University School of Medicine graduate specializes in diseases of the retina.