Boris Gramatikov, Ph.D.
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I am a member of the Hopkins faculty since 1996, and am currently Associate Professor in the Division of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Strabismus at The Wilmer Eye Institute. I am a biomedical engineer with expertise in medical instrumentation, optoelectronics, computers, signal processing, lasers and biomedical optics. My present research interests are in retinal birefringence scanning, eye tracking, automated focus detection, fixation stability and other related fields, including translational research. Our main goal is to identify and treat children with strabismus (misaligned eyes) or anisometropia (unequal refractive error) before irreversible amblyopia (functional monocular blindness) results.
Please click here for my institutional web page at the Wilmer Eye Institute, or scroll down for more …
Volunteering: I have chaired the
Baltimore Chapter of the IEEE-EMBS (Institute of
the Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Society), which is a part of the
Baltimore Section of the IEEE. I chaired the Section in 2006, and am
presently an ExCom
member and The Section’s Director
for Education Activities and Continuing Education (CEEE). Click here
for a list of past
and planned future CEEE events. For more
on volunteering in professional societies, please check out my CV.
Recent Awards
The 2017 Outstanding Professional Award
of Region 2 of the Institute of the Electric and Electronic Engineers
(IEEE)
The 2018 Meritorious Achievement Award in
Continuing Education of the Educational Activities Board of the
Institute of the Electric and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
Major funding. In 2009 I received the The Hartwell Foundation Individual Biomedical Research
Award for work on
the Pediatric
Vision Screening Instrument for Early Detection of Amblyopia (Lazy Eye). Click here for
all 2009 awards.
I and my co-workers from Duke
University work on a Biomedical
Research Collaboration Award from the Hartwell Foundation for developing
advanced technology for diagnosing retinal abnormalities in infants and
toddlers, in collaboration with Duke University. Read the JHU
announcement. Read more…
Main projects
Retinal birefringence scanning utilizes the optical
polarization properties of the human retina. This method was developed
originally by Dr.
David Guyton and Dr. David
Hunter ("Automated detection of eye fixation by use of retinal
birefringence scanning", Applied Optics 38,OT&BO:1273-9, March
1999), and is related to the Haidinger brush phenomenon - a bow-tie or
propeller-like pattern that appears to rotate about the fixation point when a
polarizing filter is placed over the eye and rotated. This phenomenon reflects
the retinal nerve fiber axon arrangement about the fovea and can be utilized in
a variety of useful applications. In our settings, foveal fixation is
monitored in human subjects remotely and continuously by use of a noninvasive
retinal scan. Polarized near-infrared light is imaged onto the retina and
scanned in a 3-deg annulus at frequency f. Reflections are analyzed by
differential polarization detection. The detected signal is predominantly of
frequency 2f during central fixation, and f during paracentral
fixation. Phase shift at f correlates with the direction of eye
displacement. Mathematical modeling of birefringence in retinal birefringence scanning has confirmed the experimental and clinical
results. Potential applications of this technique include screening for
eye disease, eye position monitoring during clinical procedures, and use of eye
fixation to operate devices. Considering that the structure of the fovea is the
basis of the retinal birefringence scan signal, the experience gained from
bringing retinal birefringence scanning to the clinic will also increase our
understanding of foveal structure in health and other forms of disease.
Dr. Gramatikov is involved in the design of a portable Bilateral Retinal
Birefringence Scanner (BRBS) with improved noise performance, to be used as a pediatric vision screener. The new design incorporates binocular foveal birefringence scanning,
and separate channels for binocular focus detection. This combination of focus
and alignment detection should identify over 95% of all children at risk for
amblyopia. This work is being performed in the past in collaboration with AURA
(Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.), the Space Telescope Science Institute and the Instrument Development Group (IDG) at the Department of
Physics and Astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University. This project was supported generously by The Hartwell Foundation with the 2009
Individual Biomedical Research Award.
Retinal birefringence
scanning and optical coherence tomography. This is a collaboration project between Johns Hopkins and
Duke University, sponsored by The Hartwell Foundation. Both PI’s, Dr. Cynthia Toth and Dr. Boris Gramatikov, have successfully completed previous individual research projects
sponsored by the foundation. The goal of this research project is to further
improve these two technologies and combine them with the aim of enhancing the current ability to determine
levels of retinal disease in infants and children, and to
better identify likelihood of disease progression. Read
more…
Determination of ocular defocus using the double-pass blur image of a
point source of light. The double-pass blur image of a point source is used
to determine the quality of focus of the human eye. This project is based on
earlier work by Dr. David Guyton, Dr. David Hunter and Nainesh
Gandhi. An apparatus that can determine a threshold of defocus was devised
using a circle/annulus (bulls-eye) photodiode that can distinguish focused from
defocused light. A monochromatic near-infrared light source (laser diode) is
employed. The light reflected from the fundus of the eye is projected by a
beamsplitter onto the bulls-eye detector, which is optically conjugate to the
laser diode. The photodetector signal obtained is a function of the amount of
defocus caused by the double-pass point spread reflected from the retina. The
signal is affected by refractive error, incomplete accommodation, media
opacities, and abnormalities of retinal reflection. One of the major risk
factors for amblyopia is refractive error, or, more accurately, the degree of
defocus the eye experiences. The defocus is perhaps best quantified by
measuring the size of the retinal blur circle. Such defocus detection can be
combined with eye-fixation monitoring to be used as a screening tool to detect
risk factors for amblyopia.
More about me (scroll down)
The Pediatric
Vision Screener
The Pediatric Vision Screener – early prototype (2000-2001)
The Pediatric Vision Screener – advanced prototype (2010-2014)
Click here to go to my educational web page containing important information about my work and the methods and technology used in my research and R&D.
Current work on the Pediatric Vision
Screener
Using computer modeling, optical technologies, modern electronic hardware, novel signal processing and optimization methods, we continue to improve the Pediatric Vision Screener, with the goal of making it a reliable, clinically relevant, market-oriented, and competitive product.
Some spin-off products: a vision scanner using non-moving parts, a biometric (security) scanner using the birefringent properties of the retina around the optic nerve, detection of ADHD, and others (please see publications).
More about me:
This page was last updated in July 2025