Discovering IntraLase

It Happened at the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center

Dr. Ron Kurtz (center), co-founder of IntraLase, with cornea specialists Drs. Shahzad Mian, Roni Shtein, Alan Sugar, and Theresa Cooney.

As Ron Kurtz, M.D., tells the story, the discovery of IntraLase—the bladeless laser and the company that first made it—was a chance occurrence. As a second-year resident at Kellogg, Dr. Kurtz was called to the emergency room to see an engineering student whose eye had been burned by a laser. Though the patient had multiple retina burns, the cuts were very clean and his vision was normal.

Not long after the injury, Dr. Kurtz, looking for an interesting Grand Rounds case, asked his patient to tell him more about this laser. It was a femtosecond laser in the Center for Ultrafast Optical Sciences at the U-M College of Engineering. Says Dr. Kurtz, "I learned that this laser had two important characteristics: ultra-fast pulse duration and a large wavelength band." By using tiny, rapid pulses of laser light, a surgeon could create a cut that was exceptionally fast and accurate.

These qualities would allow Dr. Kurtz and his eventual collaborator, physicist Tibor Juhasz, Ph.D., to transform this industrial laser into one suitable for eye surgery. By 1994, Dr. Kurtz had applied for a patent, and in 1997 he and Dr. Juhasz founded IntraLase Corp. that would bring the laser into wide use for LASIK surgery.

As Department Chair Paul R. Lichter, M.D., recalls, Dr. Kurtz worked at warp speed during these years, but still managed to appear calm. And as Dr. Kurtz recalls, Dr. Lichter provided important support during early stages of development.

Not surprisingly, Kellogg was one of the early adopters of the "bladeless" laser for LASIK surgery. Today the Department is pioneering other uses for the laser. In a pilot study on the laser's use for cornea transplants, Shahzad I. Mian, M.D., reports that his patients are experiencing faster recovery times and better vision.

Dr. Kurtz has a new business venture: his new company, LenSx Lasers, based in Aliso Viejo, California, will explore the femtosecond laser for cataract surgery.