New in the lab: Shrilekha Vedhakrishnan

We welcome Shrilekha Vedhakrishnan as a MyFun Marie Curie Early State Researcher. Shrilekha comes to us from Nankara Nethralaya Eye Hospital in Chennai, where she was involved in the Myopia Program. She graduated from the Elite School of Optometry, Chennai, and followed a Master Program in Vision Sciences at the Caledonian University in Glasgow, UK. She will be part of the MyFun community with PIs and Fellows from University of Tubingen, KTH, University College Dublin, Universidad de Murcia, Voptica and Zeiss Vision. At VioBio Lab she will investigate simultaneous vision designs to stop myopia progression.

More information about the MyFUN Program here.

H2020 Innovation Action IMCUSTOMEYE, coordinated by VIOBIO Lab, kicks off

The IMCUSTOMEYE project, a competitive H2020 Innovation Action of the Photonics KET Program, has just been launched under the leadership of the Visual Optics and Biophotonics Laboratory (Institute of Optics, CSIC; Principal Investigator: Susana Marcos).

IMCUSTOMEYE will develop a novel non-invasive label-free imaging-based in-depth diagnostic tool to create a step change in the paradigm for diagnostics of vision-threatening conditions including keratoconus, myopia, glaucoma, cataract and presbyopia, some of which potentially lead to loss of independence and productivity, with an impact on their treatment. The prevalence of these conditions ranges between 0.05% (keratoconus) to 100% (presbyopia in population >50 yr), and increase with age. Current standards for diagnosis and therefore treatment rely on limited quantitative information preventing treatments to be customised for individual patient’s needs. The proposed in-depth diagnostic paradigm will make use of morphological, biomechanical and optical biomarkers acquired from a new imaging device, based on Optical Coherence Tomography. These will allow creating predictive customised eye models that can guide diagnosis and treatment of individual patients. The optimisation and customisation of diagnosis, which has not been possible before, are expected to lead to significant improvement in both the provision and cost of eye healthcare.

The consortium is formed by leading institutions  and companies in optical imaging, ocular biomechanics and ophthalmology.  Partners include Academic Institutions: University of Liverpool (UK), Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland), National University of Ireland, Galway (Ireland); Eye Hospitals: Instituto Oftalmológio Fernandez Vega (Spain), and University College London Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital (UK) and companies: IROC Science to Innovation AG (Switzerland), 2EyesVision SL (Spain), Oculus  Optikgeräte GmbH (Germany), Optimo Medical AG (Switzerland)

More information and updates of the project will be found at www.imcustomeye.eu and @IMCUSTOMEYE

Plenoptika Inc Today’s Spotlight in MIT homepage

Plenoptika, a spin-off company licensing MIT-CSIC (from VioBio Lab) co-owned technology, is featured at the Massachussets Institute of Technology homepage today.  The company develops a portable device that generates eyeglass prescriptions with high accuracy, objectively and in only 10 seconds.

You can read the full press news here.

New in the lab: Judith Birkenfeld

Dr. Judith Birkenfeld joins physically VioBio Lab from Wellman Center of Photomedicine (MGH/Harvard Medical School) to enjoy the second phase of her outgoing M+Vision COFUND Fellowship.

Judith’s background is in Physics (MSc, Heidelberg University) and Visual Optics and Biophotonics (PhD Universidad Complutense de Madrid), having graduated under the supervision of Prof. Susana Marcos. She joins back after M+Vision Postdoctoral Fellowship work at MIT, Brigham Women Hospital and Mass General Hospital working on translational projects in biomedicine. Her interests are in the area of ocular imaging (OCT and microscopy) and applications to ocular biomechanics.

New in the lab: Xoana Barcala

We welcome Xoana Barcala (BSc in Optics & Optometry; MSc Vision Science, UCM) who is joining VioBio Lab (CSIC) and spin-off company 2EyesVision under an Industrial Doctorate Program funded by Madrid Regional Government.

The new Industrial Doctorate Program seeks to strengthen the lines of research and competitiveness of Madrid companies, by promoting effective collaboration and knowledge transfer between the academic world and the business world. It also promotes the recruitment of young researchers and enables the incorporation of these young doctors to companies, opening new professional opportunities.

Xoana holds clinical and research experience and will be involved in the evaluation of SimVis technology in a clinical environment for the simulation of multifocal corrections for presbyopia.

New in the lab: Andrea Carrillo

Marie Curie ESR Fellow Andrea Carrillo has joined VioBio Lab from the University of Tubingen for a short-term secondment within the Marie Curie ITN MyFun. Currently under the supervision of Prof. Frank Schaeffel, Andrea studies accommodation and emmetropization in animal models. In her project in Madrid she will be using quantitative OCT to assess anterior segment geometry/lens morphology following sustained reading.