Dr. Derek Welsbie

Dr. Derek Welsbie is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and a board-certified ophthalmologist with an active medical and surgical practice, specializing in adolescents and adults with all stages of glaucoma.

His research focuses on understanding how glaucoma leads to optic nerve injury, neurodegeneration, and vision loss. Dr. Welsbie uses high-throughput genetic screening to characterize the genes responsible for nerve cell death, aiming to develop new medication- and gene therapy-based neuroprotective strategies to prevent nerve cell death and improve outcomes for patients with glaucoma.

Prior to joining UC San Diego Health, Dr. Welsbie was an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University Wilmer Eye Institute, where he received the Shafer Prize for innovative glaucoma research and was named Assistant Professor of the Year. He has received multiple resident teaching awards and continues to have an interest in resident and medical student education.