AXIM Biotechnologies, Inc. announced it has appointed Kelly K. Nichols, O.D., M.P.H., Ph.D. to its Medical Advisory Board. Dr. Nichols joins AXIM?s three other new Advisory Board members, including doctors Henry D. Perry, Laura Periman, and Chairman Joseph Tauber. A founding member of the Ocular Surface Society of Optometry, Dr. Nichols currently serves as Dean of the School of Optometry at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is an acknowledged expert on DED and Ocular Surface Disease and has been extensively published. She earned her second B.S. and a Doctor of Optometry (O.D.) at UC Berkeley, and an M.P.H in biostatistics and a Ph.D. in Vision Science at Ohio State University. Dr. Nichols currently serves as Dean of the School of Optometry at The University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has served extensively on the Executive Board and for the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society and on each of the steering committees (DEWS, DEWS II, Contact Lens Discomfort, and MGD workshops), and is a founding member of Ocular Surface Society of Optometry. She currently serves as president of the Association for Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) and secretary of the National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (NAEVR)/Alliance for Eye and Vision Research (AEVR). Dry Eye Disease Market is recent estimates of the prevalence of dry eye disease are that over 26 million people in the United States and over 300 million globally suffer with dry eye disease. The prevalence is growing in both young and old adults, making it more urgent that clinicians are better able to diagnose and treat DED. As many as two-thirds of patients with symptoms of dry eye have never been diagnosed by their physician. Diagnosing DED is a challenge because of the multifactorial nature of the disease, with symptoms similar to other ocular surface conditions. It is well known that there is often a discordance between signs and symptoms, highlighting the need for more sensitive and accurate diagnostic tools.