OGI director Eric Pierce awarded 2026 Llura Liggett Gund Award 

May 22, 2026

The Foundation Fighting Blindess awarded Eric A. Pierce, MD, PhD the 2026 Llura Liggett Gund Award. The Foundation’s highest honor, the award is presented annually to an individual whose work has fundamentally reshaped inherited retinal disease research and brought renewed hope to millions of people facing blindness.

For decades, a diagnosis of inherited retinal disease meant a gradual progression toward blindness with no treatment options. Dr. Pierce has spent his career changing that. Today, patients who once had no recourse are enrolling in gene therapy clinical trials, receiving FDA-approved treatments, and in some cases seeing clearly enough to recognize the faces of family and friends.

Dr. Pierce, the William F. Chatlos Professor of Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Ocular Genomics Institute at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, has identified genes responsible for multiple forms of inherited retinal disease and helped develop the diagnostic tools now used worldwide to match patients to treatments. He was among the scientists in the early clinical trials of AAV-RPE65 that led to the 2017 FDA approval of LUXTURNA® , the first in vivo gene therapy approved for an inherited disease.

As principal scientist of the BRILLIANCE trial, Dr. Pierce led the world’s first study of in vivo CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in humans, targeting a form of inherited retinal disease caused by mutations in the CEP290 gene. Published in The New England Journal of Medicine in 2024, the trial demonstrated measurable improvements in vision for 11 of the 14 participants — including both adults and children — who had lived their entire lives with severe impairment. This included individuals who, for the first time, could see the food on their plates.

“When I started in this field, I had to tell families that we were working towards therapies but that there were no treatments yet,” said Dr. Pierce. “Today, those conversations have completely changed. We’re talking with patients about genetic diagnoses and discussing potential therapies and any clinical trials that might be right for them. That shift from if to when is what drives everything we do, and I share this recognition with the patients, families, and colleagues who made it possible.”