Dennis Akrobetu, MD
Dr. Dennis Akrobetu graduated magna cum laude from Davidson College with a BS in Biology and a minor in chemistry. During his undergraduate studies, he engaged in several research projects including one investigating the genetics of mitochondrial morphology and its intersection with neurodegenerative disease as well as work on photodynamic therapy and glycopolymer scaffold synthesis. He received grant funding to travel to the University of Dusseldorf in Germany for his research and earned the National Goldwater Scholarship, the most prestigious national scholarship for excellence in scientific research at the undergraduate level. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Beta Beta Beta, Gamma Sigma Epsilon, and Alpha Epsilon Delta honor societies.
Dr. Akrobetu went on to earn his MD from Duke University School of Medicine. He spent a year as a Medical Student Research Fellow for the National Institutes of Health where he investigated the role of genetic and environmental modifiers in Bosma arrhinia microphthalmia syndrome through cellular modeling and next generation sequencing. Later, he was selected as a Duke Margolis Scholar, a yearlong fellowship providing students with an interdisciplinary perspective on health policy, public health and management.
Dedicated to public service, he was elected class President at Duke and served as the Co-President of Health Career Academy where he led semester-long educational programs for local, underprivileged high school students interested in entering the medical field. He also helped start a local initiative that coordinated vision screening exams for elementary schools in Durham.
Dr. Akrobetu’s research has been published in several journals including JAMA Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology Science, RETINA, and Journal of Glaucoma. He has been interviewed by the American Journal of Transplantation and has presented his research nationally and internationally at conferences such as American Glaucoma Society, American Public Health Association, American Society for Retina Specialists, and ARVO.