Cutting Through Complexity: The Promise Of Biomarkers To Discover, Diagnose, And Treat Antibody-associated Demyelination
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$438,768.00
Summary
Patients with damage to myelin, the sheath around nerve cells in the brain, have “demyelinating disorders” which can result in severe disability including blindness and paralysis. In some patients, their immune system mistakenly targets certain proteins in the brain. This research project will identify new targets in currently undiagnosed patients, increase our understanding of underlying disease processes, and evaluate optimal treatment strategies in these patients to improve their outcomes.
Investigating The Neural Mechanisms Of Visual Recovery After Acute Optic Neuritis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$311,860.00
Summary
Patients with multiple sclerosis experience relapses followed by disease remission. Recently, neuroplasticity, or the brain's innate ability to reorganise itself to maintain function after injury, has been thought to play a significant role in remission. We study patients with optic neuritis, which causes loss of vision, to understand visual parts of the brain change during recovery to enable patients to see again despite ongoing brain injury.
Optic Nerve Head Structure And Genetic/environmental Associations: A Population-based SD-OCT Study
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$320,891.00
Summary
My research project combines two powerful new technologies, spectral domain-optical coherence tomography and the genome-wide association study, to investigate the physical and genetic characteristics of the optic nerve head in humans. Results from this work will help identify new glaucoma risk genes, increasing sensitivity and specificity for predicting glaucoma and expand our understanding of the disease mechanism allowing for the development of new treatments.