Networking event showcases power of collaboration in eye health research

Globally, at least 450 million children have a sight condition that needs treatment, with 90 million of them living with some form of sight loss. Yet eye health in children and young people remains a significantly underfunded field. Better solutions are urgently needed to protect vision and quality of life.

We established a joint funding partnership with Moorfields Eye Charity (MEC) in 2023, in an effort to pool our resources and expertise and help transform the lives of millions of children across the world.

Last week's event provided a valuable opportunity for Principal Investigators (PIs), co-investigators, funded staff, and early-career researchers to meet and hear powerful stories from people with lived experience of eye conditions.

The majority of the day was centred around networking, enabling researchers to share and learn about each other’s work. We heard from nine PIs leading research projects funded by our joint grants scheme, spotlighting their work and collaboration needs.

Dr Michael Crossland spoke about his work on wellbeing and the emotional impact on patients who have had their sight restored. He said, “I hope our work will provide a clearer understanding of the emotional journey that young people go through when they’re having treatment. We want to know what happens to their mental health, not only when their vision gets worse, but when it gets better, and the impact of some of these really exciting new treatments that are now available.”

Sharing her work on preventing disease recurrence in childhood uveitis, Dr Lola Ameenat Soleba talked about her main aim to “bring certainty to a really uncertain disease.” She added, “All too often, because we’re looking at really rare disorders, it’s hard for children and their families to truly understand what’s happening with their disease. We’re trying to involve these patients by showing them images and talking them through the stages, helping them to feel more empowered and engaged and, in turn, improving their care and the care of others.”

Another key highlight of the day was a talk from Dr Harry Petrushkin, Consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital, who invited a patient he had worked with - Nicki Guy - to discuss how they developed a revolutionary eye injection that saved her sight.

Nicki had been diagnosed with hypotony, where pressure within the eyeball can become dangerously low, causing the eye to cave in on itself. Working together, Dr Petrushkin and Nicki were able to develop an entirely new solution. In a BBC article, Dr Petrushkin said, "Somebody who, by all rights, should have lost her vision in both eyes... is now living normally. That's completely remarkable. We couldn't have hoped for better."

The event concluded with a memorable presentation from Jacob Seymour, who revealed the human side of retinitis pigmentosa - a rare eye condition in which the light-sensing cells of the retina gradually break down over time, leading to progressive vision loss.

Jacob spoke evocatively about being diagnosed with this life-changing condition at Moorfields Eye Hospital when he was 13: "They told my parents it was something that was going to progress and get worse with time." We heard about his personal struggles, "I started to feel embarrassed in front of friends and family as I couldn't explain what was happening to me," before the turning point in his adult life, when he joined Moorfields Eye Charity as a Grants Assistant.

As a final comment that captured the core purpose of our joint mission, Jacob spoke poignantly about the journey of millions of people with sight loss, “Living with sight loss is not just about what you can and can’t do. It’s how you adjust and live every day, without even realising it at first. It’s about mindset.”

Reflecting on the day, Dr Lee-Ann Coleman, a MEC Trustee and Chair of the event, said, “The interdisciplinary nature of people’s work has come through really strongly today. An unusual aspect of an event like this is that people are really able to swap skills, and I hope there will be many more collaborations resulting from that.”

Dr Angela Hind, our Chief Executive, added, “I strongly believe this partnership will create new research teams, generate innovative ideas, and drive the field of eye disease research forward for years to come."