Scientists lured to the UPMC Eye Center and ophthalmology department of the University of Pittsburgh by center and department head Dr. Joel Schuman:

• Dr. Xiangyun Wei, formerly of Notre Dame University, and a researcher trying to help determine how the layers of the human retina are formed by studying the process in the zebra fish. "His questions [include] 'How do cells know how to line up to form the layers of the retina?' " Dr. Schuman said.

• Dr. Robert Shanks, who came from Dartmouth University and whose special interest is bacterial biofilms, something Dr. Schuman compared to the "slime that forms on a toothbrush when you leave it out." The biofilm protects bacteria that might enter the eye with contact lenses or implants, and Dr. Schuman says the goal is to find a way to kill the biofilms.

• Dr. Kyle McKenna, from Emory University, whose interest is in the immunology of tumors inside the eye.

• Dr. Shiva Swamynathan, from the National Institutes of Health, who's won an NIH grant to pursue his interest in the development of the cornea.

All four of the above scientists hold doctoral rather than medical degrees.

Dr. Schuman also hired four scientists whose interests, like his, are in imaging research. They are Drs. Gadi Wollstein and Hiroshi Ishikawa, who both came from Boston via ophthalmic training in Israel and Japan respectively; engineer Larry Kagemann, formerly of Indiana University, who does much of the hands-on prototype work; and Dr. Rick Bilonick, "the statistician of our group."

First Published: February 26, 2008, 9:15 p.m.