The Old and the New Korps: two cores

The core of the laboratory is the people who do the research. While David Apple was alive, he called his researchers the Apple Korps. He liked the bilingual play on words and the reference to the German military Afrika Korps of World War Two led by the "Desert Fox": Field Marshal Erwin Rommel.

After David died, his laboratory moved to the University Hospital of Heidelberg in 2012, where his former research fellow and an original Apple Korps member, Prof. Dr. med. Gerd Auffarth continued the work of the Apple Lab. Now one can talk of a New Generation of Auffarth-Apple Korps.

Alpha & Omega

Pictured on the left is Dr Andreas Borkenstein from Graz in Austria, where he now runs a private cataract surgery practice. He was the last recruit David Apple chose to join the Apple Korps. Next to Andreas is the first of the Apple Korps, George Wyhinny MD, who is in clinical practice in Illinois, USA.

The First Apple Korps

David Apple trained over 200 students, doctors and technicians at his Charleston and Salt Lake City sites. Many of these "research fellows" and "Ocular Pathology Fellows" are now to be found in key positions in ophthalmic education and practice worldwide.

In 2000, at the time of a formal presentation of an oil painting portrait for David J. Apple in Charleston, South Carolina, David is sitting with his wife Ann Apple to his right.

• Front row seated: Dr. Qun Peng, Dr Daphne Hoddinott;
• Middle row: Dr. Liliana Werner, Dr. Marcella Escobar, Beau Evans, Ann & David Apple, Lucia McLendon, Dr. Stella Arthur;
• Third row: Dr. Roberto Bianchi, Dr. Gerd Auffarth, Maddie Manuel, Joyce Edmonds, Dr. Suresh Pandey.

When this photograph was taken, the press reported that a total of 210 Apple Korps members worked with David Apple throughout the years. Together they had made 509 publications, including 15 books and 68 book chapters and 365 journal articles. In addition, they wrote that Dr Apple had presented 941 lectures, 67 videos and 61 posters.

List of Apple Korps

A
Ehud Assia, MD (Fulbright Scholar)
Gerd Auffarth, MD
Stella Arthur MD

B
Surendra Basti, MD
Roberto Bianchi MD
Charles Blotnick, MD
Gerald Brown, MD
Andreas F Borkenstein, MD
Mark D Borup
Paul Burton, MD
Ettaleah Bluestein

C
Robert T. Casanova, Jr., MD
Victoria Castaneda-Clemenceau, MD
David B Cohen
J Craig Argyle

D
Michael E Daun, MD
James Deacon, MS

E
John T Edmonds Jr
Joyce Edmonds
Marcela Escobar-Gomez, MD
Beau Evans

F
Gerald Fishman, MD

G
Stephen C Gieser
Joseph M Googe
Alfred Guindi, MD
Todd D Gwin, MD
David Gwynn, MD

H
Michael Haik, MD
Bryan Hammer
Nancy Hamming, MD
Judy Hoggatt, MD
Daphne S M Hoddinott
Mike P Holzer, MD

I
Elke Imkamp-Gulden
Robert Isaacs, MD
Richard A Isenberg, MD
Andrea M Izak, MD

K
David Kent, MD
Takaaki Kiyosawa, MD
Guy Kleinmann MD
Yoshinori Kurata, MD

L
Robin Lanford, MD
Kenneth E Langley
Ulrich Legler, MD, Ocular Pathology Fellow in 1990
Robert Leitch
Seung-Jeong Lim, MD
Edward Lim, MD
Katherine Loftfield, MD

M
Liwei Ma
Nick Mamalis, MD
Maddie Manuel
Robert M Manthey
Tamer A. Macky, MD
James E. Memmen, MD
Kevin Merkley, MD
Tod McMillan, MD

N
G N Natchiar, MD
Irmingard M Neuhann, MD
Thomas Newland, MD
Donald A Newman
Ute Nicholai, MD
Linda C Novak

O
Shunsaku Ohmi, MD
David O'Morchoe, MD

P
Suresh K Pandey, MD
Qun Peng, MD
Beth R Pfeffer
Kenneth L Piest MD
Timothy Powers, MD

R
Jagat Ram, MD (WHO fellow)
James J Reidy, MD
David Reinecke
Enrique Roig-Melo, MD

S
Isao Sakabe, MD
Josef M Schmidbauer, MD
Larry K Sherrer
John Sims, MD
Kerry D. Solomon, M.D.
Robert L Steinmetz
Ulf Stenevi, MD
Gesa Stroman, MD
Arata Sugita, MD

T
Manfred Tetz, MD
Rupal H. Trivedi, MD
Julie Tsai-Keh, MD

V
Luis G Vargas, MD
Nithi Visessook, MD, MS
David T Vroman, MD

W
Xiaohong Wang, MD
Daniel Wasserman, MD
Liliana Werner, MD, PhD
Theirry Wilbrandt, MD
Hal Wright, MD
George Wyhinny, MD HM

Z
Brian Zaugg, MD
Jinsong Zhang

Apple Korps Reunions

1997 the first was held in Charleston SC.

1999 in Seattle, Washington, at the ASCRS with Harold Ridley present, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Implant.

2000 in Dallas, October 23, 2000 at the Wyndham Anatole Hotel.

These reunions were generously sponsored by the Swedish company, Pharmacia. In Dallas, the special guest was Howard Fine, introduced by David as an official Honorary Apple Korps member.

Honorary Apple Korps

(after a list made by Maddie Manuel (DJA's secretary) in 2002)

People named by David Apple who worked in association with his Center over the years.

• Sir Nicholas Harold Ridley, KT, MD, FRSC, FRSc, FRS
• Professor Peter Choyce, MD, FRSC
• Morton Goldberg, MD. Professor and Chairman of Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL
• Wilmer Institute, Baltimore, MD
• Reijo Linnola, MD, Univ. of Oulu, Finland
• Kensaku Miyake, MD, Shohzankai Medical Foundation, Nagoya, Japan
• Randal Olson, MD, Professor and Chairman, Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
• I Howard Fine MD, Eugene, Oregon.
• Maurice Rabb MD, Univ. of Illinois, Chicago, IL
• Jinsong Zhang, MD, China Medical Univ., Shenyang, P. R. China

The New Core: Auffarth-Apple Korps

In 2012 the laboratory moved to the University Hospital of Heidelberg, Germany where Prof. Dr. med. Gerd Auffarth has continued the work of the Apple Lab.

Since 2012, there is a new generation of researchers the Auffarth-Apple Korps.

A
Florian Auerbach MD
Victor Augustin MD
Mary Safwat Aziz Attia MD

B
Dmitrii Bagautdinov
Isabella Baur
Luise Blöck
Leoni Britz
Rebecca Buhl

C
Perfecto Cagampang III MD
Lizaveta Chychko

D
Mariyana Dzambazova

E
Daniela Emmerich

F
Hui Fang
Elfriede Friedmann PhD
Maximilian Friedrich

G
Canberk Göktepe
Helin Güngör

H
Maximilian Hammer
Simeon Hayvazov
Fritz Hengerer MD
Nikola Henningsen
Mike Holzer MD

K
Ramin Khoramnia MD
Matthias Koch MD
Maximilian Köppe MD
Florian Kretz MD

L
Grzegorz Łabuz PhD
Yumi Lee MD
Katharina Linz, MD
Stephanie Liebing

M
Patrick Merz PhD
Donald J Munro BSc

N
Tadas Naujokaitis MD
Tabitha Neuhann MD

P
Lucia Poggi PhD
Piyanut Poompokawat

R
Ditte Rasmussen
Asu Rayamajhi
Tanja Rabsilber MD

S
Sonja Schickhardt PhD
Sweet Shah
Hyeck-Soo Son MD
Rasa Strupaite

T
Tamer Tandogan MD

V
Dorottya Varadi

W
Hannah Wallek
Qiang Wang MD
Jan Weindler MD
Raquel Willrich

Y
Timur Yildirim MD
Weijia Yan, MS

Z
Lu Zhang MD
Ling Zhao

At the ESCRS meeting in Milan September 2022. Prof. Auffarth with some of the 2022 Auffarth-Apple Korps. l>r: Tamer Tandogan, Tadas Naujokaitis, Maximilian Köppe, Weijia Yan, Lu Zhang, Rebecca Bühl, Nikola Henningsen, Grzegorz Łabuz, Isabella Baur, Victor Augustin, Luise Blöck, Gerd Auffarth, Hyeck-Soo Son, Donald Munro.

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