What does it take to protect the research that could one day save your sight? On this episode of Leap Together, Zach Gobst is joined by Dan Igniewski, Executive Director of the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR) and the Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (AEVR). With over 20 years in government affairs and patient advocacy, Dan has become one of Washington's most persistent voices for vision research funding, and today's conversation shows exactly why that work matters.

Dan traces his path from early healthcare policy work to championing the National Eye Institute's independence on Capitol Hill, sharing how vision science is quietly leading some of medicine's most exciting frontiers, from the first FDA-approved gene therapy to AI-powered diagnostics and stem cell breakthroughs. He also unpacks NAEVR's “See What Matters” campaign, the mechanics of effective coalition building, and what it really takes to align patients, providers, researchers, and industry around a single message when federal funding is on the line.

Timestamps

00:00 Episode start

01:45 Dan's background and path to advocacy

03:55 What makes vision research unique

05:45 Parallels between policy and clinical research

06:55 Bipartisan support for NIH and the National Eye Institute

08:00 Career inflection points and advocacy wins

11:00 The See What Matters campaign

14:50 Shared challenges in patient engagement

16:55 What makes advocacy most effective

19:40 Mentorship and career guidance

23:15 The power of persistence and confidence

25:30 Closing thoughts

Key Takeaways

• Coalition is everything. When patients, providers, researchers, and industry align around a shared message, Congress listens. No single organization can move policy alone.
• Vision research punches above its weight. From the first FDA-approved gene therapy to stem cell and AI advances, vision scientists have quietly been leading the broader medical research field for decades.
• Don't wait to be taken seriously. As Dan once heard from a colleague: "You've been in the decision-making rooms for years, why do you think suddenly at 30 it's gonna change?" Show up, know your value, and make your point.
• Vigilance is ongoing. Even with recent wins protecting NIH funding, Dan reminds us that staying engaged and vocal is a continuous responsibility, not a one-time effort.

Resources

• Connect with Dan Igniewski on LinkedIn
• Check out the See What Matters Campaign
• Check out the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research
• Connect with Zach Gobst on LinkedIn
• Check out Leapcure

What happens when a neuroscientist follows his curiosity from the brain to the soil, and then to the stars? In this episode of Leap Together, Zach Gobst sits down with Dr. Joshua Ortiz-Guzman, a gene therapy engineer and developmental neuroscientist turned clinical research leader, industrial biotechnologist, and soil health innovator. Joshua's work spans an unusually wide range: building clinical research capacity in underserved El Paso, Texas; developing microbial biochar technologies that restore degraded soils; banking stem cells to rigorously track regenerative medicine outcomes; and orienting all of it toward a long-term vision of human longevity and space exploration.

This episode explores how environmental health and human health are deeply interconnected, and why that connection is chronically underappreciated in clinical research. Joshua shares how his PhD on brain-driven food intake led him down a rabbit hole from farm-to-table agriculture to emerging environmental contaminants like PFAS ("forever chemicals"), and why he believes the clinical research community can't fully understand drug outcomes without accounting for the environments patients live in.

He also reflects candidly on the challenges of building a research program from scratch in El Paso, a predominantly Spanish-speaking, medically underserved region where providers are overstretched, community trust requires intentional outreach, and groups like the Medical Center of the Americas are making real strides through “promotoras” led education. Joshua's journey from academic idealism to real-world business acumen, from soil pilots in Chihuahua and Colombia with Aurum Tech to a Florida-based stem cell bank called Prodigy Cells, is a rare example of evidence-first rigor applied consistently across human health and environmental systems.

What does it actually take for a high-performing clinical practice to step into research for the first time? In this episode, Zach Gobst sits down with Dr. John Mandeville, a leading oculoplastic surgeon at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston, to trace his unexpected path from bench science and surgical practice back to clinical research and what he's learned in his first year running studies.

Dr. Mandeville shares how a career spent treating Thyroid Eye Disease (TED) led him to seek out new treatment options when surgical approaches alone weren't enough, and how that curiosity brought him from enrolling a single patient to running eight or nine clinical trials in just twelve months. He reflects honestly on the steep regulatory learning curve, the importance of building the right team, the challenge of managing patient expectations and motivations, and what it really costs, financially and personally, to build a research program inside a busy private practice.

His perspective on patient recruitment is especially candid: from understanding why some patients are eager to enroll, to knowing when to talk someone out of a trial entirely, Dr. Mandeville brings a grounded, empathetic lens to what is often treated as a purely logistical problem.