Dr. Rajani Battu

Medical Director, Centre for Eye Genetics and Research, Bangalore

Dr Rajani Battu did her MBBS at Bangalore Medical College, her Master’s at St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore, and underwent fellowship training in vitreo-retinal surgery at Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai. She won multiple gold medals during her MBBS, and was awarded the AFER/ARVO visiting researcher award in 2009 in the US. She was awarded the best paper at the Karnataka Ophthalmic Society meet held in Mysuru in 2014. She was awarded a PhD from Maastricht University, the Netherlands for her work on “Inherited Retinal Diseases”.

Rajani was awarded an International Council of Ophthalmology fellowship at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London in ‘Inherited retinal dystrophies’. This started her journey with genetic diseases of the eye. With an aim to further research and treatment into these conditions that have no treatment, Dr Rajani has started the ‘Centre for Eye Genetics and Research’ a not-for-profit organization in Bangalore that is dedicated to such patients. She is also the Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Eyestem, a company dedicated to retinal stem cell research. Eyestem is currently one of the foremost companies in the country in this field. Dr Rajani hopes that this research will one day be helpful in treating patients in India.