Sheraz Daya

Sheraz Daya is a British ophthalmologist. Daya founded the Centre for Sight in 1996, and works in stem-cell research and sight restoration and correction surgery.

Education
Sheraz Daya first became interested in becoming an ophthalmologist in his grade school days after seeing a television documentary about corneal surgery. In 1982, midway through his medical studies, he decided to focus on opthalmology after watching an eye surgery performed by Peter Eustace, one of his professors. Daya graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland in 1984. Following this, he interned at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast and from 1985 to 1988 he was a resident in internal medicine at the NY Downtown Hospital in New York. He later specialized in Ophthalmology in New York and a Fellowship in Cornea, Keratorefractive and Anterior Segment Surgery at the University of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Career
Daya began his career in New York City, where he served as director of cornea and external disease at the Catholic Medical Centre. In 1993, Daya became the director and consultant ophthalmic surgeon of the Corneo Plastic Unit and Eye Bank at the Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Trust in East Grinstead. In 1995 Daya was one of the first ophthalmologists to perform LASIK eye surgery in the UK. In 1996 Daya founded the Centre for Sight, where he serves as director, which opened in 1996. An article written about himself and the clinic after its 25th anniversary wrote that over the years the clinic has become “a reference centre for the Ophthalmic industry with international visitors regularly visiting to observe new technology.” Through this, he has also worked in the fields of anterior segment and keratorefractive surgery, and the use of femtosecond laser during cataract surgery in the NHS.

Daya has also used stem cell treatment during corneal transplant surgeries,  and was the world's first person to perform live corneal transplantation with a femtosecond laser in 2006. The technique of stem cell transplantaction was shown in the documentary film The Science of Seeing Again. In 2009 Daya delivered the Choyce Medal lecture to the United Kingdom & Ireland Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgeons. He has been able to treat patients with both sight decrease and those with previously permanently non-functioning eyes due to birth defects. His patients have included public figures including presidents, prime ministers, and members of royal families.

In 2012 Daya and his team performed restorative surgery on television personality Katie Piper, who had suffered blindness following an acid attack. Daya has also been interviewed regarding other trends in ophthalmology and methods of sight restoration. In 2017 Daya was shown in a BBC documentary providing advice on how laser eye surgery is supposed to be performed. In the 2019 Daya transitioned his transplant technology to involve the placement of only a small fragment of donated corneal tissue to the eye of patients with more minor vision problems, which alleviated the need for lower prescription glasses like reading glasses. It was initially subject to a human trial with 100 subjects in partnership with the US company Allotex. He has also worked as a consultant to biotech firms including Bausch & Loeb. In 2023 he was appointed to the Board of Orbis UK. He is President-elect of the American-European Congress of Ophthalmic Surgery and will take up presidency in June 2024.

Publications
Daya has served as co-Medical Editor of the journal Cataract & Refractive Surgery Today Europe. He has also been published in the journal Ophthalmology,   as well as in the journals Cornea,   the British Journal of Ophthalmology,  and the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery. Daya has also been published in the Journal of American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus and Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society. He has also penned pieces for the mainstream media, including The Guardian.

Recognition
In 2008 Daya received the Leadership for Improvement award from the National Health Service's South East Coast Best of Health and Health and Social Care Awards Then in 2009, Daya received the Senior Achievement Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Choyce Medal from the United Kingdom & Ireland Society of Cataract & Refractive Surgeons. In 2017 he delivered the Whitney Sampson Lecture at the American Academy of Ophthalmology. In 2018 Daya was awarded the Fyodorov medal by the Hellenic Society of Intraocular Implant and Refractive Surgery. That year he was also named to The Power List, which is released annually by The Ophthalmologist magazine, and was named to the list in 2019 and 2020 as well. In 2022 he was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of Refractive Surgery.

Personal life
Daya is married to Marcela Espinosa-Lagana, who is also a medical doctor.