DOVS Researchers Celebrate Grant Success
Congratulations to DOVS for their recent grant successes.
Associate Professor Lauren Ayton and Dr. Ceecee Britten-Jones from The Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences (DOVS) have been awarded major grants to advance their research in genetic eye disease. Through a partnership with The Advanced Genomics Collaboration (TAGC) - a joint venture involving Illumina, the University of Melbourne, and the Victorian state government - they aim to develop new genetic testing pathways for rare inherited retinal diseases. A/Prof Ayton and Dr. Britten-Jones are also part of a new NHMRC Partnership grant, led by Professor Deborah Schofield of Macquarie University. The project, titled ‘Translation of Precision Medicine into Clinics for Genetic Blindness: From Diagnosis to Clinical Management and Therapies’, focuses on developing new diagnostics and treatments for inherited retinal diseases, which are the most common cause of blindness among working-aged Australians.
Professor Laura Downie has been awarded a highly competitive Investigator Grant (Leadership - Level 1) from the NHMRC for her project entitled 'Saving Sight in Uveitis: The cornea as a novel window to the ocular immune system'. Uveitis is a debilitating eye condition characterised by inflammation inside the eye. Affecting more than two million people globally, uveitis causes vision loss in up to 35% of patients and is the fourth leading cause of blindness in working-aged adults in developed countries. Laura’s program of research aims to advance health outcomes for people living with uveitis by redefining its diagnosis, monitoring and treatment with new, accurate non-invasive biomarkers. Across a suite of complementary studies, her goal is to establish her newly-developed technique to dynamically image corneal immune cells as a new non-invasive ‘optical biopsy’, to define uveitis phenotypes and track immune responses in patients. This research has the capacity to transform understanding of the immunological effects of anterior uveitis and identify new indicators to redefine its clinical care.
These projects highlight the cutting-edge research being conducted by DOVS researchers, promising significant advancements in the understanding and treatment of eye diseases. We look forward to the impactful outcomes of their research.
