In vision research, the intersection of light and biology exists in a fragile balance. True breakthroughs in biomedical research emerge from sharpened perception—the rare gift of discerning hidden patterns in chaos that elude most eyes..
For Dr. Rahmeh "Ro" Othman, this ability to find meaning in complexity is a defining feature of her work in science and leadership. At Harvard Medical School, she is not only a leader in a new approach to treating inflammatory eye diseases but also in how interdisciplinary biomedical research teams learn to think, work together, and translate scientific discoveries into clinical care.
Reflecting on her work in the lab and the clinic, Dr. Othman says: "I've always loved digging for answers. Being in science stimulates my brain and gives me purpose to advance the field, identify new treatments, and improve patients' lives. Every molecule, if you take time to listen, has a message, and I am motivated by trying to translate those messages into real therapies."
Dr. Othman connects molecular physiology with clinical vision science to uncover biomarkers that can forecast disease even before symptoms appear. Such molecular signals, small lights within the body's vast circuitry, nowadays guide a new generation of ocular therapies, promising to replace invasive injections with non-invasive, precision-targeted treatments.
With over a decade of experience in translational research, spanning immunology, neurobiology, and molecular physiology, she has established a reputation for connecting even the smallest cellular cues to far-reaching clinical relevance. Her science is a form of leadership rooted in curiosity and integrity, where each experiment is inspired by the thought of bringing human suffering to an end.
Fluent in English, French, Arabic, and conversational Italian, and having received training across Lebanon, France, Canada, and the United States, Dr. Othman personifies the global dimension of contemporary biomedicine: it is based on an ethos of empathy; it is evidence-directed; and it unites the conviction that no geography should serve as a block to access innovation.
As light symbolizes perception, it was in Montréal that perception evolved into foresight. At the Université de Montréal, she transformed insight into structure—building experimental standards, mentoring emerging scientists, and shaping a department’s research identity around rigor and collaboration. It was there that her philosophy of science, as a shared dialogue, first took institutional form, transforming curiosity into culture and discovery into direction.
The Foundations of Foresight – Montréal Years
Before she became a leading voice in ocular immunology at Harvard, Dr. Othman was already shaping the foundations of translational science at the Université de Montréal. This period turned technical mastery into leadership.
Her years there marked a shift from learning methods to building frameworks that others would later adopt, establishing her as both a researcher and an institutional bridge-builder.
Dr. Othman’s fascination with the logic of inflammation began much earlier, in the modest laboratories of Lebanon, where she earned both her B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Biochemistry (2008–2012). Working through limited facilities and social unrest, she found purpose in experimentation — a quiet determination to understand how the body heals under pressure.
She recalls: “In Lebanon, meaningful research opportunities were rare. I have spent time in hospital laboratories as a student, which grew my interest and led to an eagerness to conduct experiments myself. After the loss of both parents at a young age, I became independent, and when diabetes began to affect my grandmother's eyesight, the issue became very real. I wanted to trace what was going wrong inside her cells and find a way to prevent it.”
That personal story — watching her grandmother’s vision fade — became both a compass and a catalyst. It transformed empathy into rigor and would later define how Dr. Othman approached mentorship and experimental ethics in Montréal.
Her early research in France and Canada widened that determination into a systemic view of physiology.
At the Université d’Angers, she studied the mechanisms of septic shock and the effects of vasopressors and catecholamines on renal micro- and macrocirculation. This experience would later enable her to bring precision to ocular microsurgery. Moreover, Dr. Othman explored respiratory problems and gastroesophageal reflux in neonatal models at Université de Sherbrooke, uncovering how neural and immune systems interact even in development.
She says: “Every stage of my training — whether in France studying septic shock or in Canada exploring gastroesophageal physiology — taught me how organs respond under stress. Those early lessons in how the body fights to regain balance are what shaped my understanding of inflammation later in the eye.”
These cross-disciplinary experiences forged the systems-thinking that became her signature.
Dr. Othman explains: “Science is inherently interdisciplinary — you can’t study one system or field in isolation and expect to grasp the full picture. My background in respiratory, ocular, and gut systems has shown me that physiology and immunology are part of the same conversation. That attitude enables me to seek new observations and connect discoveries that others might miss.”
When she arrived at the Université de Montréal’s Department of Pharmacology and Physiology, that integrative mindset found its full expression. Her doctoral work on the bradykinin B1 receptor (B1R) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) pathways in diabetic retinal inflammation redefined how scientists viewed the eye’s immune circuitry.
Dr. Othman remembers: "This project gave me the confidence to believe that rigorous physiology could lead directly to therapy. It showed that if you truly understand the body's signals, then you could intervene earlier and change the disease process before it became irreversible."
Her 2019 study in Frontiers in Pharmacology demonstrated that blocking the B1R-iNOS axis reversed vascular leakage and oxidative stress. This discovery introduced a new, non-invasive eye-drop model for early diabetic retinopathy.
She explains: “During my Ph.D. I identified a new inflammatory axis in diabetic retinopathy and inhibited it using eye drops. Existing treatments are invasive and don’t address every symptom, but our non-invasive approach reversed inflammation at an early stage. When I later confirmed B1 receptor expression in human eyes, it validated a whole new therapeutic direction.”
Dr. Othman’s follow-up 2020 paper in Pharmaceuticals — part of a special issue honoring bradykinin pioneer Professor Domenico Regoli — confirmed that the same molecular axis held clinical relevance in human retinal tissue.
By 2021, her lead-author publication, “Kinins and Their Receptors as Potential Therapeutic Targets in Retinal Pathologies” (Cells), distilled years of experiments into a coherent translational plan, making kinins and receptors the fulcrum of biomarker-guided therapy in ocular disease.
But her Montréal years were not only about discovery — they were about leadership.
Within the department, Dr. Othman co-led projects on visual cortex plasticity and neuromodulation, bridging neural adaptation with immune signaling, and mentoring early-career researchers on experimental design and integrity. Her collaborators still cite her influence on the department’s ethos.
Dr. Sébastien Talbot, a former Canada Research Chair in Neuro-Immunology and one of Dr. Othman’s long-standing collaborators, credits her with redefining the boundaries of her field: “Few scientists at her stage demonstrate such a combination of scientific insight and experimental precision,” he says.
“Dr. Othman’s mastery of both conceptual design and technical execution makes her expertise highly sought after in the field of inflammation biology. At the Université de Montréal, she established decision-grade standards that became benchmarks for ocular-inflammation research, and the assays and analytical pipelines she designed now form the backbone of multiple laboratories’ work.”
Dr. Talbot adds: “Over my career, I’ve mentored scientists who now hold positions at Harvard, UCSF, Karolinska, and the Pasteur Institute, and Dr. Othman ranks among the very best. Her work consistently translates complex molecular mechanisms into clinically relevant hypotheses — a hallmark of her subject-matter expertise in inflammation biology.”
Those years in Montréal became the crucible where method met mentorship. Under her influence, ocular-inflammation research there evolved from individual experiments into a coordinated framework — proof that leadership in science begins not with authority, but with the discipline to listen, refine, and teach.
Building Systems of Innovation– Harvard Chapter
If Montréal provided Dr. Othman with the components of foresight, Harvard began to be the cauldron where that foresight could develop into leadership.
Today, a post-doctoral fellow in Immunology at Harvard Medical School, she leads preclinical programs that study neuroimmune interactions, or the coordination of inflammatory rhythms between neurons and immune cells. However, beyond the science itself, her work serves as a model for developing systems of innovation —a configuration of teams, tools, and ideas that work in concert.
At Harvard, Dr. Othman has become known for designing research ecosystems that function with both precision and purpose. Her teams develop translational frameworks that connect laboratory signals to real-world treatments—turning complex data into therapeutic prototypes.
She integrates different assays, including RNA sequencing and FACS, not as ends in themselves, but as components of a broader collaborative workflow that allows discoveries to move quickly from bench to bedside.
Dr. Othman explains: “My PhD eye-drop treatment is a unique, non-invasive way to reverse inflammation, and at Harvard, my LED-colon implant model lets us manipulate enteric neurons in freely moving mice. Both are designed to understand how neuro-immune communication shapes disease and to find better, less invasive treatments for conditions like IBD. It’s about connecting discovery to patient benefit.”
That translational mindset—seeing every molecule as part of a larger therapeutic network—defines her leadership approach.
Colleagues describe her as a scientist who engineers collaboration—bridging disciplines to make innovation reproducible and accessible. Her wireless optogenetic models in freely moving mice introduced a novel framework for studying neuro-immune dynamics with unprecedented precision, inspiring new experimental approaches in the field.
Her pioneering wireless-optogenetic models in freely moving mice have become templates across neuro-immune physiology labs worldwide, setting a new standard for precision experimentation.
Dr. Othman often reminds her trainees that accuracy and mentorship are inseparable: “I’ve always believed you can’t separate technique from discovery. The more precisely you handle the experiment, the clearer the story your data will tell. Every small detail in the lab reflects the integrity of the outcome.”
Equally important to her is the idea that science mirrors the body’s own interdependence: “Inflammation behaves like a system-wide dialogue. Signals in the gut and retina mirror one another, demonstrating how the neural and immune systems communicate using a shared language. Once you recognize that pattern, you can translate it into treatments that address the whole system, not just one organ.”
That belief informs how she guides her teams—teaching them to view discovery as a continuous conversation between mechanisms, models, and meaning.
And in the same breath, she brings a practical philosophy to every project: “In research, I never stop at identifying a problem. I ask what the data allows us to fix next—how to translate those molecules into something tangible, something a patient might one day hold in their hand.”
In this way, Dr. Othman’s Harvard chapter reflects not only her scientific innovation but her leadership as a builder of systems—where collaboration replaces hierarchy, precision fuels creativity, and every breakthrough carries the quiet discipline of collective purpose.
Leadership Through Collaboration
For Dr. Othman, leadership refers less to hierarchy and more to harmony -- a choreography of insight, mentoring, and trust that keeps the heartbeat of science alive. At each institution she has worked, from Montréal to Harvard, she has influenced the field in ways that extend beyond the data itself; she strives to create contexts in which discovery becomes a collaborative activity.
Her contribution to the field takes scientific and structural form. While her science continues to identify ocular and neuro-immune biomarkers, reformulating translational models in the process, her simultaneous work as a reviewer, mentor, and collaborator serves to protect the rigor of the field itself.
She describes this dual role as essential to keeping science self-correcting: “Peer reviewing and mentoring keep science honest. I’ve reviewed studies on ocular diseases, hereditary angioedema, and the kinin system, and I always remind myself that discovery is fragile—it survives through collaboration and careful critique.”
Dr. Othman’s editorial and peer-review contributions have supported major international journals, including Journal of Clinical Medicine, Tomography, and Pharmaceuticals.
To her, each review is a type of mentorship at scale, one that potentially sharpens ideas before they become a part of the shared archive of biomedical knowledge.
And her commitment has resulted in her being one of the trusted voices in peer reviewing neuro-immune and inflammation research, helping to ensure that recent findings meet the same criteria for reproducibility in her own lab.
At Harvard, her mentorship takes a more direct shape: guiding researchers through leading cross-disciplinary teams in experimental design, data interpretation, and manuscript preparation—passing on the methodological precision which has now become her trademark. Her trainees describe her mentorship as that of empathy and exactness: patient while teaching, thorough in reviewing.
She explains her approach simply: “Teamwork and collaboration are essential—research is like one hand cannot clap. You need patience, humility, and the drive to finish what you start, even when experiments fail.”
That same philosophy shaped her years at the Université de Montréal, where she built one of the department’s most robust ocular-inflammation programs.
Professor Réjean Couture, who supervised her doctoral research, recalls: “Dr. Othman’s leadership was program-shaping. She built our department’s ocular inflammation capacity from the ground up and authored the standards now used across laboratories. Her frameworks and protocols remain the backbone of how our teams conduct translational research today.”
Her leadership extended beyond her immediate research group.
Dr. Sébastien Talbot credits her: “The standards she established for experimental design and interdisciplinary rigor in Montréal continue to influence research design across programs internationally—a testament to her precision and the collaborative systems she helped build.”
This fame, achieved through leading by example, teaching with precision, and mentoring through conversation, has become the bedrock of her institutional legacy. It does not matter whether the event involves reviewing manuscripts in Boston or mentoring postgraduates in Montréal; Dr. Othman has demonstrated that science advances only through the practice of listening.
Biomarkers and Beyond: A Vision for Translational Medicine
To Dr. Othman, biomarkers embody a vision. In her view, identifying early biological signals parallels the act of leadership itself: discerning patterns before they become crises, and transforming invisible data into direction.
Her biomarker-guided framework—refined across years of translational research—has become a model for how science anticipates rather than reacts.
By linking receptor activity to clinical outcome, Dr. Othman developed diagnostic tools that allow researchers and clinicians to “see” disease trajectories before symptoms appear. Through her trailblazing utilization of receptor profiling to stratify patient responses, she provided medicine with something that has been long sought after but rarely available: a molecular map that predicts who will respond to which therapy and when.
The integration of diagnostics and therapeutics, often referred to as theranostics, has now become a foundation for precision care in ocular inflammation, indicating the specific significance of her contribution to the field.
As she puts it: “Finding a biomarker is just the first step. The goal is to predict who will benefit from which treatment and when—to make medicine proactive rather than reactive. That’s the future I’m working toward.”
This approach—preparation instead of a response—guides both her science and her leadership. In the laboratory, it is expressed as a feverish commitment to validate data and reproduce findings. At Harvard, it takes the form of an ethos of mentorship for young researchers, showing them how to observe not just the immediate data, but also its potential.
The broader significance of this predictive model is vast. In the United States alone, retinal diseases linked to diabetes and aging account for billions in healthcare costs each year. Earlier detection and non-invasive interventions—hallmarks of Dr. Othman’s approach—could transform that landscape, making prevention as central to care as treatment.
Colleagues describe her work as “a turning point” in ocular inflammation studies. In identifying reproducible biomarkers in both experimental and clinical models, she provided what a colleague called "a molecular compass" for studying retinal disease.
That compass is now steering new partnerships between academic laboratories and translational centers, gathering researchers around a shared vision of precision, prevention, and access for patients.
In that sense, Dr. Othman’s biomarker strategy transcends the bench—it represents a philosophy of seeing ahead, of reading complexity with compassion. Similar to her mentoring, her science is a form of early intervention: understanding before disruption, healing before decline.
This exemplifies how Dr. Othman has had a broader impact and influence in the industry: her biomarker frameworks have now been utilized by translational research centers to foster therapeutic collaborations worldwide.
The Light That Leads
Although Dr. Othman's research is grounded in data, her guiding compass has always been human. For her, every experiment is a combination of inquiry and remembrance—a still conversation with a memory of her grandmother's story turned into a promise of healing for other human beings.
She reflects: “Be patient with science, don't give up if the answer doesn't come right away, every failure just sharpens your course. If you have interest, persistence, and a work ethic to tackle the problems step-by-step, you will always see progress.”
That patience is now a hallmark of her leadership. At Harvard, she models a version of biomedical mentorship that is not only based on accuracy but also on compassion, standing firm in the belief that rigor and kindness must coexist for discovery to be meaningful.
Whether conducting trials to identify early targets of disease and relevant therapeutics, she implores her students to remember that each dataset is a life, and each molecule is a story waiting to be shared.
Dr. Othman says: "If my work can offer us the opportunity to better understand disease and more effective and compassionate treatments, then I have honored those who inspired me to embark on this work - science itself should always be in service to humankind."
From the hospital halls of Beirut to the laboratories in Montréal and Boston, her journey is an unbroken arc of curiosity, resilience, and purpose. What began as a search for understanding loss is now a model of global scientific leadership - a combination of insight and humanity.
In an era where medicine often responds to illness, Dr. Othman makes philosophy move differently; she leads by predicting, preventing, and helping others see the invisible connections before the crisis begins.
Her biomarker frameworks transcend pathology prediction by casting light on the profound interplay linking data to patient care, mentorship to guidance, and scientific discovery to therapeutic healing.
That illumination is, fittingly, the through line of her journey. From the retina to the gut, from research notes to mentorship, Dr. Othman has turned light itself into leadership—a beacon for the next generation of scientists who believe that true innovation begins with empathy and foresight.
Author: Leticia Deed
