Research Areas

Department of Ophthalmology

http://www.ophthalmology.hku.hk

Major Research Areas

• Diabetic retinopathy screening.
• Improving outcome of glaucoma interventions:
• Augmentation and modification of trabeculectomy
• Minimally invasive glaucoma surgeries
• Effect of long-term glaucoma medications on subsequent glaucoma surgery
• Cataract surgery:
• Patient experience
• Outcome measurements and improvements

Biomedical Engineering:

• Tissue engineering: All-aqueous immiscible liquid-liquid system as platforms to form cellular structures for potential transplantation purposes in the eye
• Building in vitro physiologically representative models: Eye-on-a-chip microfluidic platforms
• Surgical research on vitreoretinal surgery: Procedures modification, Intraoperative tools, endotamponades and micro-surgical devices

Neuroprotection and regeneration in models of retinal neurodegeneration:

• Trans-scleral electrical stimulation in traumatic optic neuropathy, retinal ischaemia reperfusion injury, and chronic glaucoma models in rats/rabbits.
• Immune modulatory effects of the traditional Chinese medicine Lycium barbarum in Alzheimer's disease-related vision loss.
• Mesenchymal stem cell-mediated rescue in mitochondrial dysfunction-related retinal ganglion cell degeneration in glaucoma models in rats/rabbits.
• Photobiomodulation of retinal ganglion cell survival in rabbit retinal ischaemia reperfusion injury.
• Continuous monitoring of electroretinogram using a wireless apparatus.

Glaucoma:

• Prevention of glaucoma progression with new treatment modalities and lifestyle modification.
• Collagen crosslinking − its clinical application in glaucoma-related diseases and others.
• Enhancement of disease detection and monitoring.
• Myopia control

Glaucoma:

• Treatment of acute and chronic angle-closure glaucoma.
• Risk factors and neuroprotection in normal-tension glaucoma.

Surgical and medical retina:

• Age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal vascular disease.
• Paediatric retinal diseases.
• Retinopathy of prematurity.
• Medical education.

Ocular Surface Oncology

• Epidemiology of ocular surface tumours
• Role of micro-organisms in pathogenesis of ocular surface tumours
• Evidence based practice in management of ocular surface tumours

Ophthalmic Microbiology

• Antimicrobial susceptibility of ophthalmic pathogens
• Microbiology of the ocular surface
• Antimicrobial stewardship in ophthalmology

Protecting the eye and the brain:

• Protecting the developing retina − ocular angiogenesis, retinopathy of prematurity, oxygen-induced retinopathy.
• Protecting the ageing retina − retinal ischaemia/reperfusion injury, diabetic retinopathy.
• Protecting the brain − cerebral ischaemia/reperfusion injury, stroke.
• Bioengineering − cell-based and optogenetics-controlled drug delivery.
• Development of novel molecular and cellular therapeutic approaches for ocular and cerebral diseases.

Anterior segment:

• Epidemiology and novel treatment methods in dry eye disease.
• In-vitro modelling of dry eye disease.
• Pathophysiology and treatment of corneal neuropathy.
• Treatment of sight-threatening ocular surface disease.

Retinal neuroprotection:

• Transcorneal electrical stimulation as a neuroprotective strategy in retinal disease.
• In-vitro modelling of the effect of retinal electrical stimulation.

Clinical researches in glaucoma:

• Glaucoma assessments and treatments
• Minimally invasive glaucoma surgeries

Translational ophthalmic researches:

• Novel glaucoma treatment modalities
• Intraocular drug delivery systems
• Artificial intelligence on ophthalmic imaging
• Ocular imaging technologies