NHMRC Investigator Grant success for Laura Downie

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. Anterior uveitis is the most common form, and has caused substantial economic burden and impaired quality of life. It is a challenge to provide optimal care for uveitis due to lack of accurate, non-invasive biomarkers to delineate the phenotype of anterior uveitis and track the immune status of the eye. Both measures are essential to inform optimal, personalised treatment.

Laura’s team at the University of Melbourne recently pioneered a non-invasive, in vivo imaging method to track corneal immune cells in living humans, providing the first clinical imagery of the dynamics of corneal immune cell subsets and their responsivity to pro-inflammatory stimuli. It was discovered that T cells feature in the healthy human corneal immune niche, shifting the dogma of a homogeneous innate immune cell profile. This work has redefined knowledge of the human corneal immune cell compartment and has been foundational to reshaping scientific understanding of anterior ocular inflammation.

Laura’s research vision is to advance health outcomes for people living with anterior uveitis by redefining its diagnosis, monitoring and treatment with new, accurate non-invasive biomarkers. Across a suite of complementary studies, she aims to establish dynamic in vivo corneal immune cell imaging as a new non-invasive ‘optical biopsy’ to define disease phenotypes and track immune responses in anterior uveitis patients. This research has the capacity to transform understanding of the immunological effects of anterior uveitis and identify new clinical biomarkers to redefine its care. Over the next five years, Laura will lead this program of research in her laboratory (The Anterior Eye, Clinical Trials and Research Translation Unit), in the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences. Key collaborators include Prof Scott Mueller (Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunology), A/Prof Holly Chinnery (Co-Director: FrontTear Research Centre, University of Western Australia), Prof Lyndell Lim (Centre for Eye Research Australia) and Dr Phillip Bedggood (Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences).