Ashay D. Bhatwadekar, PhD, MPHARM

Ashay Bhatwadekar, PhD, is an associate professor with Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Ophthalmology with a secondary appointment in Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. He is an adjunct assistant professor of Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy, Purdue University. From his lab in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute, he studies the pathogenic mechanism and develops newer treatments for the most common complications of long-term diabetes, diabetic retinopathy.

It was a routine eye exam that put Dr. Bhatwadekar on the path toward researching diabetic retinopathy—a diabetic condition in which fluid and blood leaking from blood vessels in the eye damage the retina. When he learned from his optometrist that there was no cure, he was inspired to study the condition and its implications.

Dr. Bhatwadekar began his education in India at Amravati University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy. He earned a doctorate in biomedical science at Queen’s University in Belfast and was a post-doctoral associate and assistant scientist at the University of Florida before joining IU School of Medicine. 

Along with researching diabetic retinopathy, Dr. Bhatwadekar studies retinal Müller cell dysfunction and the negative effects of disrupted circadian rhythm on vision. His work has been supported by grants from an NIH/NEI R01 International Retinal Research Foundation and the Showalter Research Trust. He has served on federal and charitable trust review panels, and he is a reviewer of more than a dozen journals focusing on diabetes and eye research.