Positions

Professor

Molecular and Human Genetics
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Professor

Ophthalmology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX US

Professor

Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Professor

Pediatrics
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Faculty Associate

Huffington Center on Aging
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Member

National School of Tropical Medicine
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Member

Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, Texas United States

Addresses

Jamail Specialty Care Center - Alkek Eye Center (Clinic)

1977 Butler Blvd.
3rd Floor
Houston, TX 77030
United States
Phone: (713) 798-6100
https://www.bcm.edu/healthcare/care-centers/eye/

Education

BA from Harvard College

01/1965 - Cambridge, MA United States

MD from University Of Michigan Medical School

01/1969 - Ann Arbor, MI United States

MS from University Of Michigan

01/1974 - Ann Arbor, MI United States

Professional Interests

• Studies of hereditary eye disorders, especially those afflicting infants and children, and the ocular manifestations of genetic systemic disorders.

Professional Statement

Dr. Lewis, an ophthalmologist affiliated with the Cullen Eye Institute, joined the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics to provide in-depth consultations and research in genetic eye disorders and ocular manifestations of systemic hereditary disorders for Texas Children’s Hospital and the adult Genetics Services at the Baylor-affiliated hospitals. His clinical practice includes genetic eye disease and their constitutional associations. With numerous members of the Department, he and his colleagues pioneered the mapping and isolation of many X-linked ocular disorders, including X-linked retinitis pigmentosa, choroideremia, the oculo-cerebro-renal syndrome of Lowe, blue cone monochromacy, X-linked Nettleship-Falls ocular albinism, and the Nance-Horan X-linked cataract-dental syndrome.

Lewis and Dr. David Nelson collaborated and isolated the gene for Incontinentia Pigmenti (IP2) at Xq28, an X-dominant disorder with multisystem complications in the eye, skin, brain and teeth, and embryonic lethality in males. Studies with Dr. Igna Van den Veyver and Dr. Reid Sutton continue the search for the genetic construct for Aicardi Syndrome, another distinctive phenotype in females only with extreme retinal and optic nerve malformations and profound brain and developmental consequences.

For many years, he has collaborated with Dr. James Lupski on studies of Mendelian ocular disorders, including Stargardt disease/fundus flavimaculatus (the most common genetic juvenile macular degeneration), the Laurence-Moon-Bardet-Biedl syndromes (progressive retinal dystrophy with obesity, polydactylia, developmental disability, and various renal anomalies), the Usher syndromes (retinitis pigmentosa and neurosensory deafness), and Leber congenital amaurosis (genetically heterogeneous disorders that share profound visual impairment from birth and other systemic features from neurosensory hearing impairment to progressive renal failure). The first human examples of digenic triallelic inheritance in man were defined from their extensive studies of his LMBBS cohort. The role of the Stargardt disease gene in age-related macular degeneration and autosomal recessive forms of retinitis pigmentosa were explored here first as well.

Ongoing collaborations with Lupski and Dr. Jennifer Posey included the discovery of the gene for the “Hutterite-type” juvenile-onset cataract and the recognition that this gene may also cause subsequent sudden death of these individuals in their third and fourth decades of life; the study of an unusual autosomal dominant form of progressive retinal dystrophy uniquely associated with mitral valve prolapse and other cardiac malformations; the genetic evaluation of a multigenerational Texas family with autosomal dominant optic atrophy preceding nearly uncontrollable grand mal seizures first identified by Dr. Arthur Beaudet; the search for the underlying genetic mechanism(s) of the Hallermann-Streiff syndrome, a rare ectodermal dysplasia with a distinctive face, beaked nose, natal teeth, thin hair, congenital and often spontaneously resorbing cataracts, and proportionate short stature; and the investigations of the spectrum of septo-optic dysplasia, optic nerve hypoplasia, and cerebral visual impairment, the Goldenhar syndrome, and investigations of yet-unsolved forms of ectodermal dysplasia.

Lewis also serves on the Steering Committee of Baylor’s Undiagnosed Disease Network program. He has been a member of the Steering Committee of the National Eye Institute’s National Ophthalmic Disease Genotyping Network (eyeGENE) Program since its inception in 2003 and its Chair since 2009. He was the principal investigator for Baylor of the Studies of the Ocular Complications of AIDS (SOCA) for its entire 25-year history, the longest single NIH-funded research protocol in the history of the Department of Ophthalmology, and the sole principal investigator for the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2), that demonstrated that neither lutein nor fish oil (nor both) reduces the risk of progression of macular degeneration in older Americans and that supplemental micronutrients do not protect against cognitive decline.

Websites

Selected Publications

• Zaenglein AL, Levy ML. Stefanko NS, (…), Lewis RA, (…) PeDRA Use of Retinoids in Ichthyosis Work Group "Consensus Recommendations for the Use of Retinoids in Ichthyosis and other Disorders of Cornification in Children and Adolescents." Pediat Dermatol.. 2021;38:164-180.
• Keehan LA, Jiang M-M, Marom R, (…), Lewis RA, (…), Craigen WJ, Rosenfeld JA, Lee B, Burrage LC "A novel de novo intronic variant in ITPR1 causes Gillespie syndrome." Am J Med Genet Part A.. 2021;185:2315-2324.
• Poli MC, Ebstein F, Nicholas SK, de Guzman MM, Forbes LR, Chinn IK, Mace EM, Vogel TP, Carisey AF, Benavides F, Coban-Akdemir ZH, Gibbs RA, Jhangiani SN, Muzny DM, Carvalho CMB, Schady DA, Jain M, Rosenfeld JA, Emrick L, Lewis RA, et al. "Heterozygous Truncating Variants in POMP Escape Nonsense-Mediated Decay and Cause a Unique Immune Dysregulatory Syndrome." Am J Hum Genet. 2018;102:1126-1142.
• Chambers TM, Agopian AJ, Lewis RA, Langlois PH, Danysh HE, Weber KA, Shaw GM, Mitchell LE, Lupo PJ "Epidemiology of anophthalmia and microphthalmia: Prevalence and patterns in Texas, 1999-2009.." Am J Med Genet A.. 2018;176:1810-1818.

Funding

Principal Investigator

Studies of the Ocular Complications of AIDS (LSOCA)