Can you share a brief overview of your research project and its significance in your field?
My research specifically involves outcome measures for clinical trials in choroideremia. With the recent advances in gene therapies for a range of inherited retinal diseases, one of the most significant current topics is how best to measure treatment successes or failures. Novel treatments hope to reverse degeneration but often have the more realistic goal of halting or slowing disease progression. In slow progressing diseases such as choroideremia this makes determining whether a 2 year clinical trial is a success or not extremely challenging. The traditional gold standard visual outcome measure is best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) which is the familiar letter reading chart. However, as any patient with choroideremia knows, visual acuity is usually largely unaffected, with the ability to often read down to 20:20 vision until the very late disease stages. Hence any gains due to treatment, or slowing of disease would be almost impossible to identify from measuring BCVA alone. My research is focussed on using the extensive data we have here at Oxford to provide scientific evidence on a range of tests that we have performed on choroideremia patients over a 5 year period to identify how the measures rank in importance in measuring disease progression.
What excites you most about your field?
Gene therapy and other novel eye treatments for genetic conditions are incredibly advanced one the one hand and appear almost futuristic. Yet on the other hand this field is also in it’s infancy. I am extremely lucky to be working at a world leading centre for research with one of the foremost experts, Robert Maclaren. He and his team have the rather unique ability to investigate potential treatments in the laboratory and take them all the way to human clinical trials. It is an ideal demonstration of cross-disciplinary researchers and clinicians working together to lead the way in this complex field. Whilst I am not a laboratory expert, I am able to contribute at the very other end of this process, the clinical trials stage. This is equally in its infancy with Optometrists such as myself able to make a large difference in a very short space of time. The pace of advancement, and involvement in shaping clinical trials at very forefront is extremely exciting and rewarding.
What inspired you to pursue a career in optometry?
I come from an Optometry background and worked for many years as a community Optometrist. I pursued a PhD many years ago but found few options to move forward from this. When I moved to Oxford I was very lucky to find this role which re-sparked my research interest and gave me the freedom to pursue my strengths. Working with such a talented team here at Oxford has really inspired me to work hard to benefit the whole team, since success at the clinical trial stage has such a large impact at all levels of our research team.
Are there any particular sessions, workshops, or presentations at ARVO that you're looking forward to attending? Why?
I am extremely excited to attend ARVO this year as it provides a fantastic overview of the current advances in Ophthalmology. I am particularly interested in applications of AI in ophthalmology and advances in perimetry testing so will look forward to lively debates in these spaces.
What does attending ARVO mean to you?
I feel extremely fortunate to be supported and in a position to attend ARVO. It is a gathering of world leaders in eye researchers and clinicians. While attending the lectures I am always fascinated and surprised by how far we have moved on in eyecare over the last 20 years but also how little we still understand. I can’t think of a conference that brings so many experts from so many disciplines to one arena with the singular focus being on ocular health.
Have you had any interactions with Fight for Sight before?
Our lab group has had several grants and awards from Fight for Sight, but this is my first interaction with the organisation.
