DOVS achieves MDHS grant success

Firstly, the project ‘Leveraging the lived experience of “CSF Leakers DownUnder” to establish research priorities’ (led by EMCRs Dr Bao Nguyen and Dr Ceecee Britten-Jones) which directly involve people with lived experience of cerebrospinal fluid leak as study co-designer and participants. Through surveys and interviews, they will understand barriers and facilitators to diagnosis and treatment, what is most challenging, and what matters to patients, so they can identify key research priorities to pursue. Senior mentors on this interdisciplinary project are A/Prof Lauren Ayton and Prof Bang Bui (Optometry and Vision Sciences, MDHS) and A/Prof Sam John and Prof David Grayden (Biomedical Engineering, FEIT).

Secondly the project, led by Dr Ceecee Britten-Jones, Dr Sumudu Amarasekera, and Dr Sehrish Kanwal, aims to enhance the diagnosis of rare eye diseases through the use of long-read sequencing technology. Inherited retinal diseases cause progressive vision loss in young adults, and currently half of the affected individuals cannot get a genetic diagnosis. The project's goal is to identify which patients would benefit most from long-read sequencing and integrate this technology into a comprehensive genetic testing pipeline.

Finally, with support from the MDHS Innovator Award, Prof Laura Downie will lead an integrated program of development-focused activity to fast-track the clinical translation of ADMiER. This patented point-of-care technology can analyse the properties of a patient’s tear droplet to accurately diagnose and identify subtypes of dry eye disease, a condition for which only one in five patients currently receive an accurate diagnosis.