Glaucoma UK has announced the three recipients of its 2025 project grants:
Kuang Hu, Associate Professor, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, London. Hu's project, Clarifying the Prognosis: Identifying Glaucoma Progression Patterns with Artificial Intelligence, will look at an AI tool called SuStaIn to identify subtypes of glaucoma from OCT scans. The grant is worth just under £90,000 and the project will last 18 months. Hu commented: “This research will help pinpoint people at higher risk of vision loss from glaucoma, allowing for closer monitoring and earlier treatment, while also providing reassurance to those at lower risk and making the best use of NHS resources. Receiving this grant is a tremendous privilege, as it not only supports our work but also endorses its importance through the backing of expert patients and professionals at Glaucoma UK.”
Dr. Lucy Bosworth and her team at the University of Liverpool. LIVTM: A Regenerative Cell-Based Implant to Restore Natural Eye Drainage in Glaucoma will involve looking at a bioengineered scaffold, which is implanted into the trabecular meshwork drainage channels of the eye. Bosworth and her colleagues are hoping that as well as improving drainage of fluid out of the eye, the scaffold might restore the health of the meshwork. The grant is worth just under £100,000 and the project will last a year. The award "gives us the opportunity to explore a regenerative, cell-based approach that aims not only to improve fluid drainage in the eye, but also to restore the health of the trabecular meshwork. Our hope is that this work will contribute to long-term treatments that protect vision and improve quality of life for people living with glaucoma," said Bosworth.
Dr. Colin Chu and collaborators (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology). By imaging and mapping the optic nerve head (where the nerve cells leave the eye and head towards the brain), Chu's project, Characterizing the 3D Spatial Biology of the Human Optic Nerve Head in Glaucoma, aims to give scientists and clinicians a better understanding of what’s happening at a cellular level in this crucial part of the eye. This could help identify changes that occur in glaucoma that affect the health of the nerve cells. The grant is worth just under £50,000 and the project will last a year. “This grant allows us to start a collaboration, to apply cutting-edge technologies to study changes in donor eyes from patients that had glaucoma. We hope it will give us new insights, as we will be able to look in 3D at all the different interacting cells that support the optic nerve and how they alter in disease,” explained Chu.
"We are very excited about all three projects," said Winnie Nolan, chair of Glaucoma UK’s Clinical Advisory Panel. “We believe they could have a significant impact on people living with glaucoma, through improved identification of those most at risk of sight loss, better treatment options or gaining knowledge of the causes underlying glaucoma.”
