Mentor Research Statement

Research Interests

High-resolution retinal imaging, adaptive optics, physiological optics, limits of human vision

The ability of the human eye to resolve fine detail, and the ability of the eye doctor to get a sharp picture of the inside of the eye is limited by optical blur, which is caused by aberrations, or optical defects, in the cornea and lens. Adaptive optics (AO) is a method whereby these aberrations are measured and corrected. AO techniques were originally developed to correct sharpen astronomical images in ground-based telescopes. In the last decade AO has been applied to the eye and used to obtain microscopic images of living human retinas, to map the trichromatic cone mosaic, to measure eye movement with unprecedented speed and accuracy, to measure movement of single white blood cells, and to improve vision.

One of the priorities in Austin Roorda’s lab at UC Berkeley is to develop AO technology for clinical applications. The potential clinical applications include understanding the mechanisms for the development of diseases like glaucoma, measuring blood flow dynamics in the earliest stages of diabetes, and longitudinal tracking of outcomes from genetic therapies for diseases like retinitis pigmentosa. The applications are broad, and at this stage it is important to involve personnel who have a strong clinical background and can understand the diseases as well as the patients. The BCSDP clinician scientist will have a unique opportunity to be a part of moving a new technology from the research laboratory to the clinic. He/she will benefit from exposure to a diverse group of scientists from UC Berkeley and from the other institutes with which the lab is actively collaborating (e.g., University of Rochester, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, UC Santa Cruz).