What if something too small to see with the naked eye could help protect our sight?
At Cardiff University, Dr Ben Mead is taking on glaucoma – the ‘silent thief of sight’, a condition that affects millions of people worldwide.
With support from Fight for Sight, he’s studying 'exosomes', tiny, fluid-filled sacs in the body that help cells communicate and keep cells healthy.
They may be microscopic. But their potential to save sight is huge.
By understanding how exosomes work, Dr Mead is uncovering new, smarter ways to try slowing glaucoma down and protect sight for longer – before vision is lost.
It’s careful, determined and forward-looking science.
“Because it’s [glaucoma] so slow, there’s a good chance that we can get ahead of it and perhaps stop or reverse it.”
International developments and early-career funding for eye research
While this early approach showed promise, it also came with risks. Dr Mead’s next step was to ask a crucial question:
“How can we make the delivery safer? And how can we use it better?”
That question took him to the United States, where he spent four years working at the National Eye Institute at the National Institutes of Health – one of the world’s largest medical research centres, bringing together more than 10,000 scientists.
It was here that Dr Mead began exploring exosomes – also known as vesicles.
These are nano-sized bubbles released by cells that act as messengers within our bodies. They carry proteins and genetic material, including microRNA, which help cells communicate and influence how cells survive, repair and regenerate.
The research led to a patent. When Dr Mead returned to the UK, he continued this work at Cardiff University, where he now runs his own lab – something he says would not have been possible without Fight for Sight’s early support.
“The small £10,000 grant from Fight for Sight was probably the most impactful.”
The value of early career funding
“Of all the funding I’ve received, the small £10,000 grant from Fight for Sight (co-funded with Care Research Wales and Glaucoma UK) at the beginning was probably the most impactful,” he says. “It helped me re-establish my research in the UK. That allowed me to leverage other funders, generate data, publish results, and secure further funding.”
Dr Mead added, “The Fight for Sight project grant allowed us to really capitalise on all the work I’d done in America. And that collaboration still exists today. It’s very easy to lose those links when you move countries without funding to continue the work.”
“So, it was incredibly valuable to keep going and to remain an expert in the field. It’s thanks to charities like Fight for Sight that we can keep doing important eye research here in the UK – and not rely solely on other countries to do it.”
“Eye research doesn’t receive nearly as much funding as it should, given how common age-related conditions like glaucoma and AMD are. We’re all living longer. Many of us will be affected. And we shouldn’t have to accept vision loss as inevitable.”
"Eye research doesn’t receive nearly as much funding as it should, given how common age-related conditions like glaucoma and AMD are. We’re all living longer. Many of us will be affected. And we shouldn’t have to accept vision loss as inevitable."
Exploring life in miniature to answer big questions about glaucoma
Dr Mead explains: “When we looked inside the exosomes, we found they were very rich in molecules called microRNA.
In simple terms, microRNA act like a fine tune volume control for our genes.
“They help decide which genes are switched on, which are turned down, and which are kept in check. This balance is essential for healthy cells.”
“The microRNA tells the body: ‘this is how much should be expressed – and no more than this’. So, microRNA levels play a critical role in regulating how our cells behave.
“So, what we wanted to ask was whether microRNA levels change in glaucoma.”
In work funded by Fight for Sight, Dr Mead and his team explored whether people with glaucoma – whose retinal cells are dying – have a different microRNA make-up from people without the condition.
Breakthrough discoveries that could treat glaucoma
Through the Fight for Sight Project Grant, Dr Mead has been using retinal organoids – often described as ‘cells in a dish’ – to explore what happens to microRNA in glaucoma.
“No one’s really done that before,” he explains. “We combined all the data and created a list of microRNA that behave very differently in glaucoma. Some increase dramatically. Others drop sharply – by as much as 50 times.”
Dr Mead’s research then focused on whether restoring the balance of these microRNA could help protect sight.
“Part of this project was carefully narrowing that list down to about 13 key microRNA,” he says. “We tested them – and we saw some striking effects. Some had a very strong impact on cell survival.”
He is now preparing a scientific paper that will set out the findings in detail.
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