Dr. Gerhardt received his medical degree from University of Cologne in Germany. During his medical studies he received a research scholarship and worked at Schepens Eye Research Institute with Prof. Andrius Kazlauskas and was a visiting graduate student at Harvard Medical School in Boston. His research focused on functional genomics elucidating novel mechanisms and treatment approaches in age-related macular degeneration. In 2017, he moved to Ludwig-Maximilians-University’s Eye Hospital in Munich/Germany where he completed his residential training under the supervision of Prof. Siegfried Priglinger.

He currently works in the department of Paediatric Ophthalmology, Ophthalmogenetics and Gene therapy. Recently, he was awarded a clinician-scientist fellowship and was accepted into the Munich Clinician Scientist Program. Within this program, he works on novel minimal-invasive gene therapy approaches for age-related macular degeneration, achromatopsia and retinitis pigmentosa in the laboratory of Prof. Stylianos Michalakis. His major goal is to rapidly implement novel gene therapies in clinical routine so that patients can benefit from it as early as possible. Apart from his genuine interest in patient care with a special focus on inherited retinal disease and its treatment with gene therapy, he has a broad interest and passion for classical music playing the violin, piano and singing.