The laboratories operate in a complementary manner, ensuring research excellence at an international level, specialized training for scientists in subjects related to the University’s field of expertise, and the University’s outreach to society, both at the level of individuals (patients) and at the level of other research and academic institutions and businesses.

The LVO is housed in the Medical School of the University of Crete and employs ophthalmologists, doctors, opticians and optometrists, medical photographers, nurses, as well as scientists from the fields of physics, mathematics, biology, chemistry, biomedical engineering, computer systems technicians, chemical technologists, and administrative staff. The close collaboration of the above specialties under the close guidance of the Director of the Laboratory, Professor E. Detorakis, has resulted in the LVO continuing the tradition bequeathed to it by the international activities and numerous distinctions of its founder, Prof. I. Pallikaris, and remaining at the forefront of international innovation in the field of vision. Prof. I. Pallikaris, and remain at the forefront of international innovation in the field of vision. Its doctors and researchers are members of international organizations with numerous publications to their credit.

The LVO operates on a non-profit basis and its revenue comes from the services it offers and from research funds/programs. The revenue from the services it offers is used to finance the research conducted at the Laboratory. The self-sufficiency it achieves is the driving force behind its activities, as it enables it to conduct self-financed research and continuously upgrade its clinical and research equipment, as well as the logistical infrastructure necessary for its educational activities.

The Vision and Optics Laboratory is one of the few laboratories that has the unique advantage of being able to research, design, manufacture, and apply its research results at the preclinical and clinical levels (Translational Research). This makes it the most tangible and perhaps the only Greek laboratory to date engaged in translational ophthalmic research and the provision of specialized, high-quality health and education services, with active collaborations in Greece and abroad.