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Top left: Ali Zahraei (PhD Student), Top right: Gus Grey, Bottom left: George Guo (MaSH Research Fellow), Bottom right: Nicholas Demarais (SBS Research Fellow)

Congratulations to Dr Gus Grey and his team, department of Physiology and Associate Professor Siouxsie Wiles, department of Molecular Medicine and Pathology who were awarded HRC grants.

A Health Research Council (HRC) Consolidator grant has been awarded to Dr Gus Grey and his research team to understand how lens cataract is formed, and to utilise lens physiology to develop novel drugs and delivery methods to delay the onset of lens cataract. In the current award ($600k, 2 years), his team will use imaging mass spectrometry to first characterise pathways of nutrient uptake in the lens, and their subsequent metabolism to spatially map the effects of hyperglycaemia and diabetic cataract formation. A tissue preparation approach co-developed by Dr Grey’s team allows for metabolite imaging in whole eyeballs, maintaining spatial information in major ocular tissues and the ocular fluids which directly interface with the avascular lens to supply its nutrients. This approach will provide a more accurate picture of normal ocular lens function and diabetic cataract formation.

Furthermore, using dexamethasone as a model, his team will also map drug uptake and metabolism pathways in the whole eye with a specific focus on the lens. The spatial maps of ocular drug delivery will be paired with ongoing research from both Associate Professor Ilva Rupenthal (Buchanan Ocular Therapeutics Unit) and Professor Seppo Auriola and Professor Arto Urtti (University of Eastern Finland) to provide a clear understanding of ocular drug uptake and metabolism. This will establish a technology platform to inform the development of improved ocular therapies and novel drugs to treat major diseases of the eye.

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