Location
Areas of Expertise
About Me
Dr. Joshua H. Hou is an Associate Professor and the Lyon Chair of Ophthalmology at the University of Minnesota. He is an internationally recognized expert in cornea transplantation, eye banking, and ocular surface disease. His practice specializes in complex corneal transplants and the treatment of severe ocular surface diseases, and he serves as the Cornea Fellowship Director and Medical Director of the Lions Gift of Sight Eye Bank.
Dr. Hou leads an NIH-funded laboratory focused on developing novel engineered tissue-cellular therapies for severe ocular surface diseases. His research interests include eye banking, tissue processing, and limbal stem cell deficiency. He holds five U.S. patents and has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles, and he is the Chief Scientific Officer of BrightStar Therapeutics, Inc., a biotech startup commercializing his patented research.
Training
IEEI
FellowshipInternship
Georgetown University Hospital/Inova Fairfax Hospital
ResidencyOphthalmology Residency
IEEI
Residency
Medical School
Washington University in St. Louis
Medical School
Undergraduate
Duke University
Undergraduate
Awards & Honors
Clinical Excellence Honoree
2025University of Minnesota Physicians
Top Doctors, (2025 edition)
2025Mpls St. Paul Magazine
Top Doctors, (2024 edition)
2024Mpls St. Paul Magazine
Top Doctors, Rising Stars (2022 edition)
2022Mpls St. Paul Magazine
Top Doctors, Rising Stars (2021 edition)
2021Mpls St. Paul Magazine
Semi-finalist, ASCRS 2019 Business Start-up Competition
2019Impact Medicine Magazine
2019University of Minnesota
Top Doctors, Rising Stars (2018 edition)
2018Mpls St. Paul Magazine
Top Doctors, Rising Stars (2017 edition)
2017Mpls St. Paul Magazine
HOPE Award
2016Phillips Eye Institute, Allina Health
HOPE Award
2015Phillips Eye Institute, Allina Health
Research Grant
2014American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) Foundation
Fellow of the Year
2014IEEI
Research Seed Grant
2013Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness
Beem-Fisher Resident Research Award
2013Chicago Ophthalmological Society
7th Annual Heed Foundation Resident Retreat Invitee
2012Heed Ophthalmic Foundation
Research Seed Grant
2011Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness
Publications & Press
Decellularized Descemet Membrane Anterior Keratoplasty With Allogeneic Simple Limbal Epithelial Transplantation for Partial Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency Following Partial Keratolimbal Allograft Failure
Cornea•2024Prevalence of limbal stem cell deficiency at an academic referral center over a two-year period
Frontiers in ophthalmology, 4, 1392106•2024Topical Tacrolimus Compared With Oral Tacrolimus for Postoperative Immunosuppression in Primary Keratolimbal Allograft
Cornea, 43(3), 333-342•2024Clinical applications of bioengineered tissue-cellular products for management of corneal diseases
Current opinion in ophthalmology, 34(4), 311-323•2023Staged limbal stem cell transplantation and keratoplasty surgeries as a treatment for gelatinous drop-like corneal dystrophy
GMS ophthalmology cases, 13, Doc02•2023In vitro infection of human ocular tissues by SARS-CoV-2 lineage A isolates
BMC ophthalmology, 22(1), 518•2022Management of Suprachoroidal Hemorrhage in a Patient With Boston Type I Keratoprosthesis
Journal of vitreoretinal diseases, 6(3), 210-213•2022Clinical and Histological Characterization of Toxic Keratopathy From Depatuxizumab Mafodotin (ABT-414), an Antibody-Drug Conjugate
Cornea, 40(9), 1197-1200•2021Corneal perforation in ocular graft-versus-host disease
American journal of ophthalmology case reports, 24, 101224•2021Trypan-Assisted Automated Endothelial Cell Loss Measurements Compared With Specular Microscopy
Cornea, 40(8), 1031-1035•2021
Certifications & Licensure
- Licensed In
- IL
- License Numbers
- 036132451
