EVENT: Raine Lecture

Professor John Fingert is a US Board-certified ophthalmologist with fellowship training in glaucoma and a PhD in ophthalmic genetics. He is a clinician-scientist internationally recognised for his research work investigating the genetic basis of optic nerve disease.

Glaucoma is a disease of the optic nerve that is a common cause of vision loss and blindness, however, relatively little is known about the basic mechanisms by which the optic nerve is damaged. Glaucoma has been shown to have a strong genetic basis and identifying the genes that cause this eye disease has provided powerful insights into its pathophysiology. Professor Fingert will present recent genetic studies of normal tension glaucoma (a type of glaucoma that occurs without elevated pressure in the eye). Investigations of large families with glaucoma, transgenic mice, and stem cell derived optic nerve cells and their role in generating a new model for the causes of normal tension glaucoma will also be discussed.