Children’s eye health gets £3m research funding boost, thanks to new charity partnership

Globally, at least 450 million children have a sight condition requiring treatment, with 90 million experiencing some form of sight loss. Despite this, only 1.1% of UK medical research funding is dedicated to eye health.

Sight conditions in childhood are often associated with reduced independence, educational challenges, isolation, and mental health issues. During childhood, the growing brain and visual system present a crucial opportunity for treatments to have lasting effects.

While research into adult eye health has seen significant progress, paediatric eye conditions remain severely underfunded.

This joint funding commitment - the first of its kind in the UK – aims to increase our understanding of the mechanisms underpinning childhood eye health and disease. The 11 funded projects cover a broad range of conditions, including uveitis, myopia, retinoblastoma, anophthalmia, microphthalmia, ocular coloboma, Leber congenital amaurosis, and sight loss associated with conditions like albinism and arthritis.

Across these studies, the awarded researchers are focusing on several key research areas - discovery science, diagnostics and imaging, health outcomes and mental health, and patient cohorts and tailored solutions.

- Dr Helena Lee (University of Southampton) is exploring vision loss linked to albinism and exploring whether a molecule called PEDF could help restore vision.

- Dr Elizabeth Rosser (UCL) will investigate uveitis (eye inflammation) linked to arthritis, focusing on the role of immune cells (B cells) in the eye and ways to manage the condition over time.

- Professor Mariya Moosajee (UCL) is researching the genetic underpinnings of anophthalmia (being born without eyes), microphthalmia (small under-developed eyes), and ocular coloboma (clefts in the eye), as well as exploring environmental influences and treatment options.

- Dr Maryse Bailly (UCL) will investigate myopia in children by creating mini-tissues in the lab, from cells of children with and without myopia, to develop a tool for diagnosis and testing.

- Dr Zhanhan Tu (University of Leicester) is investigating how a hand-held device can improve the detection of eye cancer (retinoblastoma) in children by enhancing eye images and expanding the number of patients studied.

- Dr Ameenat Lola Solebo (UCL) is studying how effectively a type of eye scan (anterior segment ocular coherence tomography) can predict uveitis.

- Dr Nikolas Pontikos (UCL) will use this funding to investigate causes of Leber congenital amaurosis by developing an artificial intelligence tool which images the retina. This could help clinicians identify possible treatments.

- Dr Michael Crossland (UCL) is looking at mental health and wellbeing in children following sight restoration therapies and developing solutions to support them.

- Professor Jugnoo Rahi (UCL) will undertake a national cohort study to determine the health, educational and social outcomes of childhood vision impairment, to inform policies and care.

- Professor Cathy Williams (University of Bristol) is developing a novel app to improve cerebral visual impairment in children and adolescents by ‘training the brain’.

- Dr Vijay Tailor-Hamblin (Moorfields Eye Hospital) is building a study group to better understand intermittent exotropia, a common eye condition where one eye occasionally drifts outward.

Awardees were selected by an expert review panel chaired by Professor Baljean Dhillon, NES Chair of Clinical Ophthalmology at the University of Edinburgh. Funded researchers will receive grants in the region of £300,000 for their projects, over a maximum three-year period.

The Medical Research Foundation has invested £1.6 million, thanks to generous donations from Barbara Sofia Formi, Anne Catherine Burdon, Louisa Stacey Pike and Herman Spooner, to support research nationally.

Moorfields Eye Charity has invested £1.5 million to support research at Moorfields Eye Hospital, its academic partner the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and collaborating sites nationally, thanks to the support of three anonymous leadership donors and a number of other generous donors.

Dr Angela Hind, our Chief Executive, said: "This joint funding between the Medical Research Foundation and Moorfields Eye Charity represents an invaluable opportunity in the hugely underfunded research field of child and adolescent eye health. We’re thrilled to be providing funding for ground-breaking, multi-disciplinary research nationally that we hope will change the lives of many young patients with sight conditions."

Robert Dufton, Chief Executive of Moorfields Eye Charity, said: “This is an amazing opportunity for Moorfields Eye Charity and the Medical Research Foundation to improve children’s eye health. We’re delighted to be working together to further support Moorfields Eye Hospital and its academic partner, the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, known for their pioneering advancements and make a difference to the lives of patients and their families.”

Andrew Dick, Director, the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, said: “Currently only 1.1% of UK medical research funding is spent on eye diseases. This partnership and significant investment from the Medical Research Foundation and Moorfields Eye Charity will change the landscape of children’s eye health. The funding and multi-disciplinary approach with rapid translation of research at Moorfields and UCL will help bring new therapies and better outcomes to patients.”