A Moorfields consultant researching retinal blindness is one of eight academics to receive a new £1.5m research professorship from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Professor James Bainbridge will develop a programme of experimental research for blinding diseases of the retina, with the aim of creating new treatments including gene and cell therapies. The award was established by the government to fund outstanding academics in the early part of their careers.
Professor Bainbridge said: 'This award from the NIHR provides an invaluable opportunity to help translate scientific discoveries into new treatments for the benefit of people with blinding eye disease. I am thrilled to have been selected.'
Appointed to the professorial chair of retinal studies at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology in March 2011, Professor Bainbridge has already established a programme of research from the laboratory investigation of mechanisms of retinal disease in experimental models, through pre-clinical development of novel therapies, to clinical trials of new medical and surgical interventions.
