retinal-imaging
(9)
Cheng Zhang
Cheng Zhang is the co-founder and CEO of Character Biosciences, a precision-medicine biotech that flips traditional drug discovery on its head by starting with patients instead of targets. Trained in mathematics and philosophy at Duke and shaped by years at UBS, Oliver Wyman, and Pfizer, Zhang built Character around a proprietary database of thousands of patients with age-related macular degeneration, combining genomics, longitudinal clinical data, retinal imaging, and machine learning to reclassify common diseases of aging into genetic subtypes. In 2025 the company raised an oversubscribed $93 million Series B to move its lead eye-disease candidates into the clinic.
Character Biosciences
Character Biosciences is a precision medicine company developing targeted therapies for progressive polygenic diseases, starting in ophthalmology with age-related macular degeneration (AMD). By pairing human genetics with longitudinal clinical and retinal imaging data from thousands of consented patients - and layering AI-enabled biomarker analysis on top - Character reclassifies broad diagnoses into genetically defined subtypes so it can design drugs that target the root drivers of disease progression. Its lead programs, CTX114 (a complement inhibitor for geographic atrophy) and CTX203 (a lipid regulator to prevent progression to advanced AMD), are advancing toward the clinic on the strength of a Series B that grew past $110 million.
Digital Diagnostics
Digital Diagnostics is a Coralville, Iowa healthcare AI company that builds autonomous - not assistive - diagnostic systems that make a clinical decision without a physician reviewing the result. Its flagship product, LumineticsCore (formerly IDx-DR), was the first medical device of any kind to receive FDA authorization to make an autonomous diagnosis: it screens for diabetic retinopathy from retinal images at the point of care in primary care offices, no eye specialist required. Founded in 2010 by retina specialist and computer engineer Dr. Michael Abramoff, the company has raised more than $130 million to expand autonomous AI into new disease areas.
JuneBrain Inc.
JuneBrain Inc. is a Baltimore medtech startup building a wearable, AI-powered eye-scanning system that brings optical coherence tomography (OCT) out of the eye clinic and into neurology, primary care, and the home. Its flagship Neuro-i SS-OCT captures high-resolution retinal images without a technician, and its AI software turns those images into quantitative biomarkers clinicians can use to monitor diseases like multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's between visits. Founded in 2017 by neuroscientist Samantha Scott after her own diagnosis with a neuromuscular disorder, the company is a WBENC-certified women-owned business on track for FDA submission in 2026.
identifeye HEALTH
identifeye HEALTH (formerly Tesseract Health) builds an AI-powered retinal imaging platform that turns a quick eye scan in a primary-care clinic into a window onto whole-body health, helping clinicians screen for diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and macular degeneration without dilation or specialty equipment.
Samantha Scott
Samantha Scott, PhD is the founder and CEO of JuneBrain, a Baltimore medtech startup building the first wearable, technician-free retinal scanning system. Trained as a biomedical engineer at Stanford and USC, she is turning high-resolution eye imaging plus AI into a way to detect and monitor brain and eye conditions far outside the walls of a clinic. JuneBrain has raised more than $3 million in private capital, won $3 million in NSF grants, holds four issued patents, and is on track for an FDA submission.
Intalight
Intalight is a US-based ophthalmic imaging company (the international brand of SVision Imaging / 视微影像, Luoyang, China) that builds high-speed swept-source OCT and OCT-angiography systems. Its flagship DREAM OCT platform images the whole eye in a single ultra-widefield scan, combining deep retinal penetration, anterior-segment imaging, biometry, and AI-driven segmentation for clinicians and researchers worldwide.
Bing Li
Bing Li is the CEO and co-founder of Intalight, an ophthalmic imaging company behind the DREAM OCT swept-source platform. Founded in 2014 by a group of scientists and Silicon Valley industry veterans, Intalight built one of the first swept-source OCT devices in 2019 and has since powered more than 170 peer-reviewed retinal-imaging studies. Trained as an engineer and applied mathematician, Li moved from the auto and semiconductor industries into eye care, betting that faster, deeper, wider retinal scans would change how clinicians see inside the eye. In May 2025 the company won CE Mark clearance to sell DREAM OCT across the European Union, with FDA review pending in the United States.
Vasiliki Demas
Vasiliki 'Vicky' Demas, PhD, is the CEO and founder of identifeye HEALTH, an AI-enabled retinal imaging company that brings specialized eye screening to primary care settings. A chemical engineer by training with a PhD from UC Berkeley and a postdoc at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, she cut her teeth as a founding member of Google Life Sciences (which became Verily) and helped build foundational technology for GRAIL's Galleri multi-cancer early detection test. At identifeye HEALTH — which she joined in 2021 and rebranded from Tesseract Health — she leads a 38-person team developing a portable, FDA-registered AI retinal camera that lets minimally trained staff detect diabetic retinopathy and systemic disease markers in the same visit patients already make to their primary care doctor.