Biraj Mahato, PhD, MS joined The Vision Center at Children's Hospital Los Angeles in 2022. Dr. Mahato focuses on the development of stem cell-based therapies for ophthalmic neurodegenerative diseases.

He has published multiple research papers in peer-reviewed journals and given invited lectures on emerging areas of stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine.

Dr. Mahato has extensive expertise in diverse biological fields such as cellular reprogramming, stem cell biology, retinal regeneration, and mitochondrial biology. His prior research demonstrated a small molecule-based method to obtain retinal photoreceptor-like cells from skin fibroblasts. These chemically induced photoreceptors were shown to restore vision in blind animal models. His research showed how mitochondrial function and cellular energy metabolism balances pluripotency in embryonic stem cells.