News in brief RANZCO WARNS AGAINST EYEBALL TATTOOS The inclusion of eyeball tattooing in health legislation passed by the NSW Labour government in February has effectively legalised this experimental form of “body modification” in the state. RANZCO responded by issuing a strong warning against the practice, which involves injecting ink into the sclera to make it a solid or mix of colour. “The eye is a very complex and sensitive organ and in no way should anyone consider tattooing it if they wish to retain their sight over the long-term,” said Associate Professor Mark Daniell, a corneal specialist. Eyeball tattooing has been banned in some US states due to a link to blindness and cancer. SMART CONTACTS FROM CHINA In a huge leap forward for next-generation wearable tech, a Chinese research team have built an “invisible” circuit layer within a contact lens for the first time. The team’s research, published in the journal Advanced Materials in March, was led by Professor Song Yanlin at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. The built-in electronic circuit is invisible to the naked eye because it measures one micrometre in width, making it narrower than the average bacterial cell. It could be used to measure glucose levels in the tears of diabetic patients or become part of a layer of “invisible skin” giving a sense of feeling back to patients with prosthetic limbs, the authors said. PENNY THE PIRATE CROWNED QUEEN OPSM’s Penny the Pirate--an eye test turned into a book and an associated app, designed to test kids’ eyes while reading with their parents--has been crowned the world’s most successful marketing campaign in the Warc 100 rankings, an annual report that judges the world’s best marketing campaigns by business impact. The campaign, created for OPSM by Saatchi & Saatchi Sydney with the help of paediatric eye care specialists, resulted in thousands of children having their eyes checked and increased the number of eye tests conducted by OPSM by 22.6% year-on-year. The book is now being used by not-for-profit organisation OneSight to help test children’s eyes in remote and rural Australia. ESSILOR AQUIRES UK ASSET, PUBLISHES STRONG RESULTS Essilor International has acquired UK-based Vision Direct Group, one of Europe’s leading online contact lens retailers, with revenue of around £33 million ($71 million) in 2015. Essilor said the acquisition strengthens its current position in Europe by complementing existing activities. Fuelled by 19 new acquisitions and partnerships, Essilor also published strong financial results for 2015, as the company continues to focus on its lens and optical instrument divisions, innovation and consumer marketing. Revenue was up 18.4% to €6,716 million ($11,205 million), while operating profit increased 19.6% to €1,183 million ($1,974 million). MORE MAORI SURGEONS PLEASE The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) has committed to increasing the number of Maori surgeons in New Zealand as part of a newly developed Maori Health Action Plan. “At present, there are only a small number of surgeons in New Zealand who identify as Maori,” said Dr Jonathan Koea, an Auckland-based hepatobiliary and general surgeon and member of the Plan’s working group. Dr Koea notes that while this programme will take a sustained effort over years, it is a significant step forward for the College’s commitment to Maori health. “Through the Action Plan, RACS intends to increase the number of Maori in the surgical workforce, embed cultural competency as a fundamental professional skill, focus more surgical research into Maori Health and promote initiatives that will decrease the disparities that currently exist for Maori.” BAYER OFFERS GRANTS Bayer and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) announced the availability of the “AACR-Bayer Innovation and Discovery Grants”. The programme aims to promote the key tenets of the Bayer Grants4Targets initiative with a focus on oncology to provide new treatment options for cancers with high unmet medical need, to encourage innovation and translation of ideas from basic research into novel drugs and to foster collaborations between academic groups and the pharmaceutical industry. BIONIC EYES BECOMING A REALITY Once the privilege of TV’s Six Million Dollar Man, bionic vision is becoming more commonplace for the everyday patient. Pixium Vision have launched the Iris II, their first epiretinal implant with 150 electrodes—more than three times what is currently available—suitable for patients who have lost their sight due to retinitis pigmentosa (RP). The France-based research team, headed by Professor Michel Weber, said early results with patients with RP are positive. Meanwhile in the US, optics specialist Eric Tremblay unveiled a unique contact lens that will provide the wearer with telescopic vision. The lens is just 1.55 mm thick and features a thin, reflective telescope that enables the user to zoom in and out via winking. ▀ Excellence in ophthalmology celebrated The annual Excellence in Ophthalmology and Vision Research prize evening is an upbeat affair, bringing together those at the beginning of their careers with those who have more experience to share. This year event’s on March 1 was no different, with a celebratory atmosphere pervading the halls at the University of Auckland. The event was well-attended by members of the Ophthalmology Department, senior staff from the School of Medicine, donors, benefactors and friends and family members of the prize winners. Ophthalmologist and department head Professor Charles McGhee presided, explaining the evening was about celebrating past and future potential success. He reviewed the achievements of the department since it was established in 1999, including gaining more than $33 million in research funding, increasing research fellows from one to 75, 700 research papers published or soon-to-be published, 30 higher research degrees awarded or submitted, and 18 PhD and MD students currently enrolled. There has also been a myriad of national and international connections developed through the success of past students, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in their field both here and overseas. Professor McGhee thanked the department’s benefactors, those who’ve been supporting the department from the start such as Drs Bruce and Wendy Hadden and the Ring family to the newest supporter, former faculty administrator Joan Ready (see story P3) who he says blew him away with her generous retirement donation of $250,000. Doctoral candidate Yeri Kim provided an outline of her PhD research into the Development of connexin inhibitors for the treatment of retinal diseases to understand the mode of action of Peptagon and HCB1019 to potentially treat diabetic retinopathy and macula oedema, and dry and wet AMD. Given the initial success of Kim’s research, clinical trials with Peptagon are expected to start this year. But the main reason for the evening was to celebrate seven award winners: the noted summer studentships and the winners of the prestigious William MacKenzie Medal, Arthur Thomas Paterson scholarship and Calvin Ring Undergraduate awards: Calvin Ring Undergraduate Prize in Ophthalmology—Victoria Utley Dr Peter Ring presented the Calvin Ring Undergraduate Prize for the best allround undergraduate student in clinical ophthalmology to fifth year medical student Victoria Utley. In presenting the award, Dr Ring explained that the award was given in honour of his father, Dr Calvin Ring, who was at the forefront of ophthalmology for his generation, who spearheaded good practice and the use of new IOLs in cataract surgery and who was instrumental in bringing about the Maurice Paykel Chair of Ophthalmology, held by Professor McGhee. Utley comes from a dynasty of surgeons in Christchurch whose publications and research showed a strong surgical bias, he said. Utley said she was excited to receive the award, the first since school, and though she was still undecided which direction to follow she’d always had an interest in ophthalmology. “I enjoyed my ophthalmology placement last year. I’ve always been interested in eyes, but being able to see the research and being able to understand that the eyes aren’t their own separate entity, they are kind of a window to what’s going on generally in the body, I found fascinating.” Utley said how privileged she felt to have won the award and to have met the Ring family. William MacKenzie Medal—Michael Wang The William MacKenzie Medal is awarded each year for “Early Excellence in Eye Research.” It is a highly prized award that recognises the significant contribution made by a medical student or trainee intern towards a research project, which reached publication status during the year of the award. This year’s winner, Michael Wang, a fifth year undergraduate medical student, received his award from Associate Professor Jennifer Craig who said Wang’s academic achievement, dedication toward research and enthusiastic approach was commended by a number of staff members. She explained how Wang had done an exceptional job working on a number of different projects in her department looking at some of the treatments for dry eye, mostly in the area of ocular surface disease. He has published two papers and submitted a third on the work he’s been doing and has at least two more in the pipeline. He now has eight papers to his name and six in preparation, she said. Award winners (L to R) Michael Wang, Eileen Song, Clare Wu, Victoria Utley, Andy Kim, Benjamin Wright and Dr Leo Sheck. Picture by Godfrey Boehnke (GB) Arthur Thomas Paterson Scholarship—Dr Leo Sheck Auckland Eye’s Dr Sarah Welch, the current clinical director of ophthalmology at Greenlane Clinical Centre, specialising in medical and surgical retina, presented the Arthur Thomas Paterson Postgraduate Scholarship to Dr Leo Sheck. The scholarship supports a vocational trainee in ophthalmology to pursue a fellowship overseas. In presenting the award Dr Welch said it was a pleasure having Dr Sheck as a registrar in the department and that he’s been a great asset. Dr Sheck is going to Moorfields Eye Hospital in London to study genetic eye diseases, in particular retinal dystrophies and electrophysiology and diagnostics. All areas of great need in the country and within the Auckland district, said Dr Welch. In his citation, Dr Sheck said at Moorfields he’d be working with Professor Graham Holder, a well-recognised international expert in electrodiagnostics, while his supervisor will be Professor Michel Michaelides, an international expert in retinal dystrophies. Eye Institute Summer Studentship—Andy Kim Eye Institute ophthalmologist and patron of the Buchanan Ocular Therapeutics Unit at Auckland Unversity Dr Trevor Gray, presented the Eye Institute Summer Studentship award to third year medical student Andy Kim. Kim conducted a comprehensive literature review over the summer on Demodex blepharitis under the supervision of Associate Professors Jennifer Craig and Trevor Sherwin. The aim of his project was to review the current knowledge on Demodex mites and Demodex blepharitis with the intention of identifying molecules which could be uniquely and readily expressed by Demodex mites. It was also a pre-cursor to Kim’s honours project to develop a diagnostic test for ocular demodicosis. Retina New Zealand Summer Studentship— Benjamin Wright Frazer Alexander, president of Retina New Zealand, presented the Retina NZ Summer Studentship award to fifth year medical student Benji Wright. Wright undertook a summer studentship Characterising Cystic Maculopathy in Inherited Retinal Disease, funded through Retina New Zealand and supervised by Retina Specialists’ ophthalmologist Dr Andrea Vincent, who he worked with in the Greenlane Clinicical Centre. During the summer studentship Wright determined the incidence of cystic maculopathy in a number of inherited retinal diseases, identified from the NZ Database of Inherited Retinal Disease. He reported on the differing incidences of cystic changes between autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive and x-linked retinitis PhD research presenter Yeri Kim and Professor McGhee entertain the audience. Picture by GB Naveed Yasin, Raul Ayala and Priyanka Agarwal Clare Wu and Dr Bruce Hadden share a laugh during the prize giving. Picture by GB pigmentosa. He also investigated the rates of response to carbonic anhydrase inhibitor treatment in patients who have developed cystic maculopathy, and correlated this with their genetic cause, in order to ascertain the likelihood of successful treatment. Tom Cat Trust Summer Studentship—Clare Wu Associate Professor Bruce Hadden presented the Tom Cat Trust Summer Studentship award to third-year medical student Clare Wu. Supervised by Associate Professor Trevor Sherwin and Jane McGhee, Wu researched stem cell proliferation, migration and differentiation of excised limbal tissue verses neurospheres. The cell sources were seeded onto amniotic membranes then placed on donated human cornea for varying time periods. She found neurospheres proliferated and migrated more favourably than their limbal tissue explant counterparts, informing future treatment options for patients with limbal stem cell deficiency. Ombler Trust Summer Studentship—Eileen Song Dr Andrea Vincent presented the final Summer Studentship Award, the Ombler Trust Award, to third-year medical student Eileen Song. Under Dr Vincent’s supervision, Song characterised the nature and spectrum of X-linked inherited retinal disease within New Zealand. Using the Inherited Retinal Disease Database, she identified individuals with X-linked disease and investigated the correlation between their clinical features, disease in females and the genetic test results. Results from her project show 9.26% of patients from the Inherited Retinal disease Database harbour a diseasecausing mutation in a retinal gene on the X chromosome. The population studied also contained several families where the obligate female carriers were as severely affected phenotypically as the affected male family members, challenging the conventional concept that female carriers have a later onset and a milder course of disease than affected males. The study highlighted the importance of local knowledge in order to optimise management and treatment, said Dr Vincent. ▀ 4 NEW ZEALAND OPTICS <strong>Apr</strong>il <strong>2016</strong>
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