ProfessorMatthew Simunovic

Professor Matthew Simunovic MB BChir PhD FRANZCO

Matthew Simunovic is Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Science at the Save Sight Institute, University of Sydney, where he leads a translational research program focused on retinal disease and repair. He is a Senior Visiting Medical Officer at Sydney Eye Hospital and the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network and serves as Director of the Vitreoretinal Surgical Fellowship at Sydney Eye Hospital.

Professor Simunovic’s work spans laboratory discovery, surgical innovation and early-phase clinical trials to develop emerging therapies for inherited retinal disease, age-related macular degeneration and retinal detachment. His research includes optogenetic and cell-based therapies, retinal bioglue platforms for retinal repair, subretinal therapeutic delivery, and the development of functional biomarkers for retinal disease. He was the first vitreoretinal surgeon to perform approved retinal gene therapy in the Southern Hemisphere and is Principal Investigator of the Fight Inherited Retinal Blindness! Registry, evaluating real-world outcomes of gene therapy internationally.

Professor Simunovic has secured over $6 million in competitive research funding as chief investigator from the NHMRC, MRFF, Macular Disease Foundation Australia, the Macula Society (USA), Foundation Fighting Blindness (USA) and other national and international bodies. He is an elected member of the Macula Society (USA) and, in 2025, was admitted to the American Ophthalmological Society (founded 1869), the oldest ophthalmic scholarly society in the world, of which he is currently the only Australian member.