Title

Michaël J.A. Girard

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Michael Girard
Title/Position
Associate Professor
Areas of Research

Areas of Research

Biomedical Imaging & Instrumentation , Biomedical Informatics & Systems Modeling, Neuroengineering
Contact

Contact

W-203A (HSRBII) & B2603 (Emory Eye Center)Emory
michael.girard@emory.edu
Ophthalmic Engineering & Innovation Laboratory (OEIL)
Biography

Biography

Dr. Michaël J.A. Girard is currently an Associate Professor at Emory University and Georgia Tech (joint between Ophthalmology and Biomechanical Engineering) where he heads the Ophthalmic Engineering & Innovation Laboratory (OEIL). Dr. Girard’s research is positioned at the exciting intersection of AI and Physics (with a focus on biomechanics), with applications in Ophthalmology. His research focuses on optic neuropathies (including glaucoma) but also covers myopia and neurological disorders. Dr. Girard’s research has remained translational, and he is the founder of the start-up company Abyss Processing Pte Ltd, which provides 3D AI solutions to simplify and improve glaucoma diagnosis & prognosis. Dr. Girard has authored 160+ papers in top Ophthalmology and Engineering journals, has given 80+ invited talks, has received 40+ research grants & 20+ research awards. As a PI, he has received more than $10.5M in research funding, and he has licensed 5 technologies to local and international MedTech companies. Ranked among the world’s top 2% scientists (Elsevier-Stanford List, 2024), Dr. Girard is also ranked #4 worldwide for optic nerve research (Expertscape, 2024). He has also trained 10 postdoctoral fellows and 13 PhD students in Biomedical Engineering. 

Education

Education

  • PhD - Tulane University, New Orleans, USA
  • Diplôme d’ingénieur (equivalent to BEng + MEng) - Ecole Polytechnique Universitaire de Lyon, France
Academic Appointments

Academic Appointments

Department of Ophthalmology - Emory Eye Center
Affiliated Centers & Institutes

Affiliated Centers & Institutes

Research Interests

Research Interests

At the intersection of ophthalmology, engineering, and artificial intelligence

The approach we take

Since establishing the Ophthalmic Engineering & Innovation Laboratory (OEIL) in Singapore in 2012, Michaël J.A. Girard, PhD has stragegically leveraged the remarkable growth in engineering and ophthalmology to advance translational research.

Now partnered with the Emory department of Ophthalmology, and the GTech/Emory department of Biomedical Engineering, Dr. Girard and OEIL are positioned to maximize imputs from artificial intelligence (AI) and physics - particularly biomechanics - to advance translational research in ophthalmology. This multidisciplinary approach holds the key to unlocking a deeper understanding of a wide range of ophthalmic disorders and developing innovative treatments. Additionally, our work aims to enhance and simplify the screening, diagnosis, and prognosis of these conditions.

Dr. Girard's research is particularly concentrated on optic neuropathies, including glaucoma, but also extends to myopia, neuro-ophthalmic, and neurological disorders. With a strong emphasis on translational research, OEIL maintains close collaborations with clinicians and industry partners—a relationship that is poised to expand  in the near future.

The problems we tackle

Dr. Girard and the OEIL group are committed to developing explainable AI algorithms integrated with 3D digital twin models (biofluid and biosolid) to uncover the mechanisms of axonal injury in patients with optic neuropathies, including glaucoma. This approach aims to deepen our understanding of why some individuals lose vision despite existing treatments. Dr. Girard and his team seek to comprehensively assess the in-vivo biomechanics, blood perfusion, and intricate 3D architecture of retinal and optic nerve head (ONH) cells and tissues—the primary sites of injury in these conditions.

The OEIL group's ultimate goal is to create a foundation model for the optic nerve head that can identify novel cellular, vascular, and connective tissue markers, redefine optic neuropathies from an engineering perspective, and drive the development of innovative treatment strategies.

Working with Dr. Girard, OEIL researchers have access to

  • State-of-the-art optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology to image patients with optic neuropathies at Emory
  • Excellent AI resources
  • A large retrospective OCT database from Emory (n>200,000)
  • A wide international network of world-renowned clinical collaborators from USA, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia that can provide further imaging data, as fostered by the PI over the past 20 years
  • Strong links with industry and our experience at spinning off or licensing technologies;
  • Support and career advice.
Teaching Interests

Teaching Interests

My teaching interests lie at the intersection of biomechanics, artificial intelligence, and ophthalmology.
Publications

Publications

The Emory Optic Nerve Head Atlas - Using 3D Anatomical Mapping to Study Optic N…
We developed the first 3D optic nerve head (ONH) atlas using AI-based registration of large-scale OCT datasets, enabling atlas-adjusted RNFL mapping and strain-based assessment across glaucoma severity stages. The atlas improved diagnostic discrimination compared to native measurements and demonstrated that effective strain differs by disease stage, supporting its use as a structural and biomechanical reference framework for glaucoma classification.
Impact of optic nerve tortuosity, globe proptosis, and size on retinal ganglion…
In 17,940 eyes, AI-derived orbital metrics showed that straighter optic nerves and shorter interzygomatic line-to-posterior pole (ILPP) distance were associated with thinner RNFL across general, glaucoma, and myopic populations. These findings suggest that reduced optic nerve tortuosity and decreased globe projection may increase traction-related stress on retinal ganglion cell axons, highlighting ILPP distance as a potential biomarker of axonal health and orbital biomechanics.
Scleral structure and biomechanics
The sclera is the eye’s primary load-bearing tissue, providing mechanical stability to the retina and optic nerve head under dynamic pressures and eye movements, and recent advances have clarified how its hierarchical collagen structure and cellular components govern age- and disease-related biomechanical changes. This review synthesizes progress in multi-scale imaging, experimental and computational biomechanics, and emerging surgical and minimally invasive therapies, with emphasis on structural and mechanical alterations in myopia, glaucoma, and ageing.
AI to Identify Strain-Sensitive Regions of the Optic Nerve Head Linked to Funct…
In 249 patients with glaucoma, we showed that incorporating optic nerve head (ONH) tissue strain measured during intraocular pressure elevation significantly improved deep learning classification of specific visual field defect patterns beyond morphology alone (AUC up to 0.88). Saliency maps localized strain-sensitive regions primarily to the inferior and inferotemporal neuroretinal rim, suggesting that rim biomechanics, rather than lamina cribrosa strain, may play a dominant role in axonal injury and functional loss.
Fusing Structural Phenotypes with Functional Data for Early Prediction of Prima…
In 451 eyes with primary angle closure glaucoma followed for ≥5 years, a machine learning model integrating AI-derived optic nerve head structural features and sector-based visual field parameters classified slow versus fast progressors with strong performance (AUC = 0.87), outperforming models based on structure or function alone. Inferior ONH features, particularly MRW and RNFL thickness，were the most predictive, underscoring the critical role of inferior structural integrity in progression risk assessment.

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