Each year we award grants to supervisors to recruit a student who will carry out high-quality research into sight loss. This year we’ve awarded four studentships in London, Liverpool and Manchester.
Fight for Sight is committed to developing early career researchers and advancing the knowledge of eye conditions. With the latest four studentships, supervisors will be undertaking research into:
• Cell replacement therapy as a new approach to treating advanced retinal disease.
• A deeper understanding of structural biology in order to speed up the search for new treatments that protect the sight of those with junctional epidermolysis bullosa.
• Identifying and validating new genes associated with Anophthalmia (A, absent eyes) and microphthalmia (M, small eye).
• Understanding how fungal eye infections cause damage to the cornea.
As well as training the next generation of eye researchers, these awards could ultimately lead to the development of novel treatments that can help prevent or reverse sight loss in patients, improving their quality of life.
This year's recipients
Dr Rachael Pearson, Kings College London
Project: Towards co-transplantation approaches to treat retinal degeneration: application of degradable hydrogels
Area of interest: Cell replacement therapy offers a promising approach for the treatment of advanced retinal disease. For many Inherited Retinal Dystrophies, this requires transplantation of photoreceptors alone, but in Age-related Macular Degeneration, photoreceptors and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) would likely need to be replaced. This project aims to determine if and how donor photoreceptor encapsulation using biodegradable hydrogels improves cone photoreceptor transplantation outcome and whether this can be used to support photoreceptor/RPE co-transplantation approaches.
Benefits: This project directly supports work towards developing an effective cell replacement treatment for advanced retinal degeneration. In the first instance, the team seek to transplant single-cell suspensions of cones, but the subsequent aim will be to combine this with RPE sheet co-transplantation. It is conceivable that early results from this project may inform the first clinical trial that is already in development (within two years) but will undoubtedly directly contribute to any follow-up cone-only trials and photoreceptor/RPE co-transplantation approaches (within five years).
Dr Kevin Hamill, University of Liverpool (with Debra UK)
Project: Super-resolution imaging of the protein laminin 332 to dissect mechanism and develop treatments for junctional epidermolysis bullosa
Area of interest: Multiple teams are developing treatments for Junctional epidermolysis bullosa (JEB), yet there is no cornea-specific platform that can robustly predict clinical efficacy. Corneal epithelial cells depend on a protein called laminin-332, and a part of this, made from the LAMB3 gene, is faulty (mutated) in most JEB cases. Existing models don’t provide enough detail of how the laminin protein functions to explain how different patient mutations affect this protein. Additionally, current approaches used to test new drugs cannot process many samples at a time. Advanced imaging techniques including super-resolution microscopy now offers the chance to study how laminin-332 organises, how the mutation in LAMB3 disrupts cell adhesion and whether or how therapeutics restore normal architecture at a scale not previously possible. The team will create a dual-use platform: for imaging and understanding of the disease, which can be used in candidate drug screens, to allow rapid testing of interventions to treat this debilitating disease.
Benefits: This project will speed up the search for new treatments that protect against sight loss in JEB and related corneal diseases. By the end of the PhD, the team will have a platform that can test drugs and gene therapies using engineered human eye models. Promising treatments could be identified faster, at lower cost, and with less reliance on animal testing. These findings may lead to new therapies within five to eight years for people at risk of vision loss. Beyond JEB, the research will also deepen understanding of wound healing and age-related damage in the eye.
Dr Rodrigo Young, University College London
Project: Increasing the molecular diagnosis rate of anophthalmia and microphthalmia: Identification and validation of new genomic variants
Area of interest: Anophthalmia (A, absent eyes) and microphthalmia (M, small eye) are congenital eye malformations responsible for ~11% of childhood blindness. As the morphological defects of A/M cannot be corrected, there is no cure. However, learning more about the function of genes that cause A/M when mutated could enable the development of therapies for this condition.
This project aims to increase the diagnosis rate of A/M by identifying new A/M-related variants in the genomes of over 250 patients recruited to the 100KGP and validating their pathogenicity in eye development using zebrafish and organoid models.
Benefits: Although A/M cannot be cured, identifying the pathogenic gene variant can significantly improve the quality of life for patients and their families. A/M is often associated with other medical conditions, such as endocrinological defects, which can be managed after genetic diagnosis. Furthermore, identifying the causative gene variants offers psychological closure and aids family planning by clarifying inheritance patterns. Throughout the project, starting one year in, the team will confirm new pathogenic gene variants and inform treating consultants. These efforts aim to enhance patient outcomes and provide valuable guidance for both medical and personal decisions.
Dr Can Zhoa, University of Manchester
Project: Uncovering Secondary Metabolite Gene Functions in Aspergillus fumigatus Corneal Invasion
Areas of interest: Fungal keratitis is a serious eye infection that affects the clear front surface of the eye, known as the cornea. Fungal keratitis is difficult to treat and often leads to permanent vision loss. One major reason treatments fail is that we still don’t fully understand how fungal infections, especially those caused by Aspergillus species, manage to break through the eye’s natural defences.
This project aims to understand how fungal eye infections cause damage by studying a group of fungal genes that produce harmful compounds. By identifying which of these genes help fungi invade the eye, new ways to stop infection can be discovered and more effective treatments for fungal keratitis may be developed.
Benefits: This research could lead to the discovery of new drug targets and treatment options for fungal keratitis, a major cause of blindness in many parts of the world. By identifying which fungal genes are responsible for damaging the eye, we can begin to design medicines that prevent vision loss before it happens. The project will also develop advanced tools and models to study fungal infections more accurately. Although further development will be needed after the PhD, we expect early-stage findings—including potential drug candidates—within four years, helping to lay the foundation for future treatments that protect sight.
These new awards will enable four new PhD students to embark on their careers in sight loss research, joining a community of Fight for Sight students at universities and institutions across the UK.
We hope their future discoveries will ultimately lead to innovative solutions that can help to improve the lives of people affected by sight loss.
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