James B. Aguayo-Martel

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Dr. James B. Aguayo Martel, M.D. M.P.H., a graduate of Stanford University, Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins Medical School was trained as a scientist, physician, and community leader. In the early 1980's, while at Harvard Medical School, Howe Labratory, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, he was among the first investigators to apply NMR spectroscopy to study tissue metabolism. His work demonstrated on the living lens, was used to understand diabetic cataract formation. During this time, in collaboration with Dr. Leo Chylack, Jr, he demonstrated the statistical correlation between diabetes and posterior subcapsular cataracts. Aguayo Martel further probed the association of human behavior and cataract formation using non-linear regression analysis.

After finishing his internship at the Beth Israel Hospital, in Boston, he moved to Baltimore where at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Dr. Aguayo-Martel led a research team as the Associate Director of NMR Research, Department of Radiology, which developed Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Microscopy, a technique for obtaining microscopic 3 dimensional images of living objects non-invasively. The technique first applied to a single living cell signaled the advent of a new class of instruments which would eventually allow monitoring cellular structures and their biochemistry inside the human body, or to perform "biopsies" without needles or surgery. He pioneering the technique of deuterium NMR spectroscopy to studying the metabolism of biological organisms. Deuterium being a non radioactive isotope of hydrogen, deuterium which is an abundant atom in metabolites and water, it allowed it's application in understanding bacteria metabolism and disease awareness and ultimately to the further understanding of cataract formation especially among diabetics. His work culminated in the development of chemical shift NMR Microscopy, which combined the Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy analysis while working at the Francis Bitter, National Magnet Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research team applied the technique to the study of the living lens to study diabetic cataractogenesis.

Dr. Aguayo Martel is also noted for his work in low illumination ophthalmoscopy and co-inventing the technique of Intraepikeratophakia a precursor to the technique of LASIK. He is noted for his work on vitreous hemorrhage, intraocular foreign bodies and ocular trauma.

Dr. Aguayo Martel remains active as the Chief of Surgery at The Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Sacramento as an Ophthalmologic Surgeon.