Ocular surface diseases research group

Dr Nick Di Girolamo, Prof Denis Wakefield

Our group is interested in disease of the human ocular surface that develops as a consequence of excessive ultraviolet radiation exposure. Although there are no ideal animal models for these diseases our group is exploring the potential mechanisms that trigger these diseases in man using tissue and cell culture-based assays and to devise non-surgical treatment strategies. Recently we successfully obtained funding from the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia (ORIA) to progress this research and collated sufficient data that was accepted for publication in the leading experimental ophthalmology journal (IOVS). More recently we have focused on identifying corneal stem cells using specific phenotypic markers. We identified the low affinity nerve growth factor receptor as a candidate marker which we hope will allow us to separate cells expressing this protein on their cell surface by tethering techniques to facilitate cell enrichment. This work was published in Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine. Future work in this field will be aimed at isolating and propagating human corneal stem cells in an immature state for transplantation purposes.
Another major aspect of our research on uveitis, particularly the role of innate immune receptors in this disease, was funded by an NHMRC Project Grant.

Funding was also received from the George Kranitis foundation ($85,000) for a uveitis research fellowship, which was awarded to a post-doctoral scientist in the Group, Dr Jeannie Chui.