Unit 1 (Head, Michael Ibbotson):

Major project areas:

1. Development of a bionic eye to return sight in AMD and RP sufferers (collaboration with UoM, UNSW, UWS, Centre for Eye Research Australia and Bionics Institute)
2. Cortical visual physiology (collaboration with NYU).
3. Retinal visual physiology.
4. Active vision (coordinating eye movements with visual processing). Collaboration with Monash University.
5. Developmental studies in the visual system (collaboration with UQ).
6. Behavioural consequences of visual processing (collaboration with UQ).

Staff:

• Professor Michael Ibbotson. Director NVRI.
• Dr Brendan O’Brien. Research Fellow funded from the Bionic Eye fund.
• Dr Shaun Cloherty. Research Fellow funded from the centre of excellence in vision science.
• Dr Markus Hietanen. Research Fellow funded from the NHMRC and NVRI.
• Dr Partha Bhagavatula. Post-doc funded from NHMRC.
• Dr Adam Morris. Adam currently holds an NHMRC CJ Martin fellowship and is employed in the USA. He is expected to start at the NVRI in late 2012.
• PhD student Yu-Shan Hung. A finishing PhD student that will transition to post-doc.
• PhD student Alex Hadjinicolaou. Funded from an ARC grant and an ANU scholarship.
• PhD student Ray Wong. Funded from an ARC grant and an ANU scholarship.
• PhD student Molis Yunzab. Scholarship from UoM.
• PhD student Sheng-I Chang scholarship from UoM and 25% scholarship from NVRI.

Unit 2 (Head, Sarah Hosking):

Major project areas:

1. Studies of functional and anatomical changes to the visual cortex resulting from glaucoma-like nerve damage.
2. Intraocular pressure and gas perturbations to identify pre-clinical markers of vision loss and retinal damage in patients with age, glaucoma (Hosking, O-Connell, Battista, Paul with collaborator Bui) and diabetes.
3. Epidemiological studies of ocular and vascular risk factors for retinopathy in patients with diabetes.

Staff:

• Professor Sarah Hosking, CEO of the Australian College of Optometry
• A/Prof Robyn Tapp is the Lions Senior Research Fellow
• Dr Abrez Hussain Batcha Lions research 1-year fellowship
• Dr Josephine Battista, Research Fellow
• PhD student Heather Connor
• PhD student Joe Paul
• PhD student Angelina Dare
• Masters student Rachel O'Connell
• Dr Josephine Battista is conducting the next phase Essilor study

Unit 1: Basic Vision Research

Professor Michael Ibbotson – Director of the NVRI

For a biography, please go to the section titled Director of Research. My research interests are focussed on how natural visual systems see. This interest has led to a range of experimental approaches that include physiology, eye movement recording, perceptual analysis and computer modelling. Several themes have formed the basis of these studies. Firstly, discovering the physiological and anatomical structures that process visual information and, secondly, studying how these visual pathways influence behaviour and perception. The third major theme is to utilise this knowledge to develop diagnostic tests for various forms of visual impairment and to develop prosthetic vision devices (bionic eyes) capable of returning functional sight to the profoundly blind.

To be more specific, much of my work is closely aligned to the study of attentional mechanisms, and thus has relevance for attention-related medical conditions such as dyslexia, general learning problems, ADHD and schizophrenia. The work focuses on the neural network properties of the primary visual cortex using modern imaging techniques to assess detailed functional neural network activity. The brain is a complex structure that needs to grow in a highly organised fashion. My research investigates cortical development using optical recording techniques and comparing our findings to detailed mathematical models developed by our collaborator, Professor Geoff Goodhill (Queensland Brain Institute). The so-called bionic eye is a device in which an array of stimulating electrodes is placed on the retina of a blind patient. Using a digital camera as the input and converting those signals into useful stimulation patterns it is theoretically possible to replicate the action of non-functioning photoreceptors in the blind human eye. My research is looking at the transduction process from electrical stimulation to meaningful biological signals.

Dr Brendan O’Brien - Research Fellow

Dr Brendan O’Brien received his degree in Neurobiology & Behaviour at the University of Washington where he examined the organisational principles of the connections between the visual cortex and thalamus. After finishing his degree he joined David Berson at Brown University and pioneered techniques for electrophysiological characterisation of retinal ganglion cells demonstrating their unique intrinsic properties. He then went on to take up a position in the laboratory of Heinz Wässle at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Germany where he generated techniques to carry out single cell RT-PCR from retinal cells. Since that time, Dr. O'Brien has been a Lecturer at the University of Auckland and the Australian National University where he continued his work examining the biophysical properties of retinal cells and how they can be manipulated to more effectively restore vision in blind patients with a retinal prosthesis. He began work as head of the retinal laboratory in the NVRI in July 2011, where he continues his efforts towards developing a bionic eye.

Dr Shaun Cloherty - Research Fellow

Shaun L. Cloherty received a BE (Hons) degree in Aerospace Avionics from the Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia) in 1997 and a Ph.D. degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) in 2005. From 2005-2007 he was a Research Associate in the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia) where his research activities included cardiac electrophysiology and modeling of functional heterogeneity in the cardiac pacemaker, modeling and flow estimation for control of an implantable rotary blood pump, and modeling of electrical stimulation strategies for a retinal vision prosthesis. From 2007-2011 he was a Research Fellow in the Research School of Biology at The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia. He is currently at the the National Vision Research Institute where his research interests include aspects of development and organization of the visual cortex, system identification and modelling of functional circuits and information processing in the visual system, and the functional assessment of electrical stimulation strategies and novel neural interfaces for a retinal vision prosthesis. Dr Cloherty was a Founding Officer of the New South Wales Chapter of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, in Sydney, Australia and currently represents the Asia-Pacific region on the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society's Administrative Committee (AdCom).

Dr Markus Hietanen - Research Fellow

Dr Markus Hietanen completed his Bachelor of Science degree, Graduate Diploma in Psychology and PhD in Neuroscience at the Australian National University. His PhD examined the effects of visual adaptation on visual perception. He spent a year in the laboratory of Prof. Mike Mustari at Emory University, Atlanta examining disruptions to cortical functions in strabismus. After returning to Australia he has been conducting a collaborative research project between Monash University and the Australian National University, examining neuronal response changes around the time of saccadic eye movements. He has continued this collaboration with Monash University from the NVRI since July 2011.

Dr Partha Bhagavatula - Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Dr Partha Sarathy Bhagavatula attended graduate school at the Australian National University, where he examined the role of vision for short-range navigation in birds. His predoctoral studies were in India where he attended the University of Pune, India for a Masters program in Zoology. His current interests include the study of animal behaviour, the genetic basis of behaviour and neural development.

PhD student - Yu-Shan Hung

Yu-Shan was born in Taiwan where she studied Entomology at the National Chung-Hsing University with a focus on insect neurobiology and anatomy. In 2003 she enrolled in a Masters Entomology course under the supervision of Prof. En-Cheng Yang and developed an interest in honeybee vision science. She came to Australia in 2007 and started her PhD with Prof. Michael Ibbotson at the Australian National University. Continuing her research on the honeybee visual system, she investigated motion-sensitive neurons to understand the neural mechanisms that enable bees to maintain a stable image on the retina in spite of continual body movements. The project has relevance to the development of robotic unmanned aerial vehicles.

PhD student – Molis Yunzab

Molis was born and brought up in Inner Mongolia, China. She came to Australia during year 10 and completed the rest of her high school in Armidale, NSW.  She then went on to complete an undergraduate degree in Advanced Science (majoring in Neuroscience and Genetics) at the Australian National University. During her undergraduate studies she developed a strong interest in sensory neuroscience research, which motivated her to study the neuronal mechanisms underlying dragonfly vision in her Honours year. Fascinated by visual neuroscience, she began a PhD in the field of visual cortex research. The focus of her PhD project is the physiological and anatomical properties of the visual cortex. She is interested in the function of different types of neurons in visual information processing and how these neurons interact with each other within neuronal networks.

PhD student – Alex Hadjinicolaou

After receiving a B.E. (Electrical & Electronic)/B.Ma.Comp.Sci. from the University of Adelaide in 2008, Alex moved to Canberra to undertake a PhD at the Australian National University. He has since developed an interest in the idea of stimulating those components of the visual system left intact by degenerative retinal disorders to restore visual perception. The purpose of his research is to better understand functional organisation and information processing in the early stages of the visual system with a specific view towards application to prosthetic vision (bionic eyes).

PhD student – Ray Wong

Ray obtained his Bachelor Degree in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University and his Masters degree from the University of New Brunswick, both in Canada. He came to Australia for his PhD degree and has been working on the Bionic Eye project. He is working out how to selectively activate particular retinal ganglion cell types with electrical stimulation, by using a combination of
engineering and neuroscience techniques.

PhD student – Cheng-I Shang

Cheng-I completed her undergraduate studies in Psychology at NTU, Taiwan. After spending three years in a biopsychology lab, she went on to do an MSc study in Neuroscience at University College London, where she conducted a project asking whether the retinal pigment epithelium controls the development of chick sclera, supervised by Professor Glen Jeffery. To pursue her interest in colour vision, she moved to Australia to begin a PhD. Her main focus now is the alternation in perceptual sensitivity during saccades for both chromatic and achromatic stimuli.

Unit 2: Clinical Vision Research

Professor Sarah Hosking – Unit Head and Chief Executive Officer of the ACO
Professor Sarah Hosking came to the ACO in March 2010. She previously worked at the Centre for Eye Research Australia and is Professor in the Department of Optometry and Vision Science, University of Melbourne. Having trained in the UK as an optometrist at City University London and Moorfields Eye Hospital, she completed her PhD at the Department of Ophthalmology at Manchester University, following which she commenced her academic career at Aston University in Birmingham in 1996. During that period Sarah had numerous roles including Clinical Director and Postgraduate Director, founder and Managing Director of the Aston Academy of Life Sciences, (a $20m research hospital on the University's campus) and concurrently held a non executive board directorship in a $1.5bn per year NHS Trust. Until 2009, Sarah was Professor of Optometry at both Aston University Birmingham and City University London. In addition to her ongoing role as Professor in the department of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne, she currently holds honorary professorships in optometry at City University London and in ophthalmology at Shanxi University China. She became a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors in 2009.  Professor Hosking is a thought leader for the Creative Innovation conference 2010-2011 and actively supports Save the Children Australia where she is Chairman of the Victorian State Council.

A/Prof Robyn Tapp - Senior Lions Research Fellow

A/Professor Robyn Tapp was recruited as the Senior Lions Research fellow of the National Vision Research Institute of Australia at the start of 2012. A/Professor Tapp carried out her PhD in the field of Diabetes Epidemiology at the International Diabetes Institute and Monash University, 2002-2004. In 2005 she was awarded the prestigious National Health and Medical Research Council Sidney Sax Post-Doctoral Fellowship and as part of this award undertook post-doctoral training at the International Centre for Circulatory Health, Imperial College London and INSERM France, returning to Australia at the start of 2007. During this time, she developed extensive expertise in novel non-invasive methods for assessing both the retinal microvasculature and cardiac structure and function. Additionally, she developed expertise in life course epidemiologic methods and the determinants of adult chronic disease. On her return to Australia she was with the International Public Health Unit, Monash University where she continued to develop her interest in lifecourse metabolic and microcirculatory health. At the start of 2010 she returned to the UK to further develop her research program at the Imperial College London, working extensively with the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), Bristol University and the Young Finns study, University of Tampere, specifically focused on the impact of childhood growth patterns and latent cardiovascular risk factors on microcirculation in adult life. A/Professor Tapp is a chief investigator on two current NHMRC project grants both funded for over 1 million each. She maintains strong collaborative links with the University of Tampere, Bristol University and the Imperial College London. College

PhD Research Student – Heather Connor

Heather graduated from the University of Bradford in 1987 with a first class Honours degree in Optometry.  She worked in the General Hospital in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne before moving to private practice in the Midlands where she was a supervisor for the British College of Optometrists Pre-Registration Examinations.  She moved to Melbourne in 1996, initially working in private practice and then in her own business, before working with Dr Noel Brennan and Dr Chantal Coles-Brennan from 2004 to 2008 in contact-lens based research. Heather is currently in the final year of her PhD researching cortical markers for glaucoma and is based between the National Vision Research Institute, Centre for Eye Research and the Brain Research Institute.  She is the recipient of an NHMRC Research Scholarship.  She works in the glaucoma monitoring clinic at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital and in the glaucoma speciality clinic at the Australian College of Optometry.

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