Principal Investigator: Dr Monica Acosta
Cell and Molecular Biology of the Retina (CMBR) Laboratory
Dr Monica Acosta is a Senior Lecturer in the School, and principal investigator in the Cell and Molecular Biology of the Retina lab. Her research focuses on retinal biology and pathology. She uses the retina as a window to the brain and her research investigates mechanisms of cell damage in the retina and works towards the development of novel therapies for eye disease. Dr Acosta supervises student studies investigating systemic and neurological conditions that affect our daily life and exploring ways to diagnose (and so treat) these conditions earlier. Her work is unusual in directly linking animal models of the retina to health-related outcomes.
Dr Acosta says: ”What I love the most about my research is that it has real patient focus via the investigation of retinal diseases, its effects and response to therapies. I now have funds to investigate the effect of diabetes in the retina and my international collaborations have shown that the retina is a tool to investigate neurological disorders of the elderly. I have been leading a multidisciplinary research group with initiative and purpose in achieving the excellence in retinal research that fulfils the requirements of a leading laboratory.”
The location of water channels (green) and signs of retinal stress (red)
around an enlarged blood vessel in a diabetic donor retina.