Durham University Professor Joins the Fight for Sight

Fight for Sight, the main eye research charity, is delighted to announce its latest Trustee appointment.

Roy Quinlan is Professor of Biomedical Sciences in the School of Biological and Biomedical Science at Durham University. He will assist the charity in its goal to fund pioneering eye research that prevents sight loss and treats eye disease.

Professor Quinlan’s research interests centre on the lens of the eye and how its function is affected by age, by disease and by the environment. He knows first-hand the importance of Fight for Sight having been a member of its Grants Assessment Panel.

Funding from Fight for Sight helped Professor Quinlan establish some of the important detail of cataract formation, relating this to other age-related diseases that are caused by protein mis-folding. These results were hugely important, giving us a better understanding of cataract, whilst promoting eye research within the wider medical and human disease context

Professor Roy Quinlan joins the Fight for Sight board led by chairman Nigel Pantling. Roy said: “I’ve always been hugely grateful to Fight for Sight and their supporters, who’ve helped to raise vital funds to enable research projects, like mine, to be funded.

“I’m looking forward to contributing to the governance of the charity and offering my guidance and expertise to the Fight for Sight. As the availability of funds in the charity determine the number of research projects to be funded, it’s important to have those professionals actively promote the charity and its aims.”

Roy studied Biochemistry at the University of Canterbury and did his post-doctoral fellowship, in Germany, before joining the Department of Biochemistry, at the University of Dundee, as a University Lecturer. He joined the University of Durham in 2011 and co-founded the Biophysical Sciences Institute in 2007.

Michele Acton, Chief Executive of Fight for Sight welcomed the appointment saying: “It’s a real pleasure to have such an influential figure join the Fight for Sight team. Roy fully understands our mission and knows how important it is for us to be funding eye research.”