Jez Guggenheim // Job description:
ESR (PhD Student)
High myopia is a leading cause of visual impairment worldwide. Both genetic and environmental factors are known to be important determinants of refractive error. The main aim of this project will be to examine, for the first time, the genetics of susceptibility to environmentally-induced myopia in a model organism. To achieve this, a selective breeding experiment will be carried out, selecting for high- and low-susceptibility to myopia. Additionally, the ESR will also contribute to ongoing experiments to map genes (quantitative trait loci) controlling eye size and shape.
To be eligible for this Fellowship, applicants should have a degree or MSc in either genetics, optometry, ophthalmology or medicine. The ESR will gain experience in several different aspects of research, including ocular phenotyping, molecular genetics, statistical genetics and QTL mapping.
ER (Post Doc)
High myopia is characterised by excessive elongation of the eye during post-natal development,
which leads to an increased risk of retinal detachment, retinal degeneration, and vision loss.
Ocular coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-contact method capable of quantifying optical distances
in the eye with extremely high axial resolution. In recent years frequency domain (FD) optical
coherence tomography in the field of biological and medical imaging has shown that imaging
sensitivity and thereby imaging speed can be improved by a factor of more than 100, compared to
preceding time domain techniques. Due to technological developments like fast, high resolution
cameras and ultrafast tuneable lasers with extremely narrow line width, FD methods are very likely
to significantly improve optical biometry in terms of speed and reproducibility. This project will
exploit the latest advances in frequency-domain OCT to develop improved instrumentation for precise
and reproducible measurement of ocular component dimensions in model organisms. The fellowship will
be based in the School of Optometry & Vision Sciences, under the direction of Dr Jez Guggenheim, Dr
Boris Povazay and Prof. Wolfgang Drexler (Myopia Research laboratory and Biomedical Imaging Group).