Physiological optics and the ocular surface

We aim to understand the physiological processes involved in human vision and the normal functioning of the anterior eye to address a range of key research issues. These vary from preventing and managing ocular disease to the design and evaluation of medical devices in the eye.

To achieve good vision, the eye depends on high-quality optical images at the retina through the maintenance of healthy ocular structures and the provision of suitable correction from medical devices or other means.

This retinal image can be degraded for numerous reasons including refractive error (myopia), failure to focus correctly (presbyopia), and optical aberration (as a result of disease processes or poor optical device performance).

Research in this group is focused on the study of all these aspects of vision failure to ultimately provide better treatments and medical devices for improved visual performance.

Principal research areas currently include:

  • the development, management and prevention of human myopia;
  • ocular aberrations and their relationship to quality of vision;
  • the inflammatory response of the ocular surface to contact lens wear;
  • understanding contact lens discomfort;
  • novel forms of presbyopia correction (contact lenses and intra ocular lenses);
  • corneal collagen cross-linking;
  • the repair of the corneal surface using stem cells;
  • interactions between host proteins, microbes and contact lens surface.