Dr. Ciolino is a member of the Cornea Service and the Henry Freeman Allen Cornea Scholar. His clinical focus is in corneal transplants, keratoprosthesis, corneal cross-linking, and diseases of the anterior segment of the eye. As a clinician scientist, his research interests include translational projects such as keratoprosthesis and ocular drug delivery. 

Dr. Ciolino earned his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine and subsequently pursued an ophthalmology residency at Albany Medical College, where he served as Chief Resident in his final year. Returning to Boston for a two-year fellowship in the Cornea, Refractive Surgery and External Disease Service, he received the nationally recognized Claes Dohlman Fellowship Award. He then joined Harvard Medical School's full time faculty at Mass. Eye and Ear under the K12 Harvard-Vision Clinical Scientist Development Program, a highly competitive institutional program funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Working with collaborators at Boston Children's Hospital and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Ciolino has developed a drug-eluting contact lens capable of delivering various pharmaceutical agents, such as antibiotics, antifungals, and glaucoma medication. These drug-eluting lenses have the potential to improve surgical outcomes for patients with keratoprosthesis by both protecting the ocular surface of the eye and by preventing post-operative infections, and they may one day replace eye drops.

In addition to his clinical practice and his research program, Dr. Ciolino also supervises medical students and participates in training residents and fellows. He is a named inventor on a U.S. patent application for a contact lens drug delivery device, and his research innovations have multiple direct therapeutic applications that may ultimately benefit a broad and diverse patient population. He also serves as Associate Director of Harvard Ophthalmology Alumni. 

Clinical Interests

Corneal transplants, keratoprosthesis, corneal cross-linking, diseases of the anterior segment of the eye