Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023)

Recent advancements in ophthalmic imaging have made significant impacts to understanding and treating diseases leading to vision loss. The eye is a uniquely transparent organ, permitting optical imaging of the retina, the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a commonly used diagnostic imaging modality that is increasingly being investigated for real-time volumetric imaging. However, even with the good optical performance of the human eye, the lateral resolution of OCT, and related optical imaging techniques, is limited. Adaptive Optics (AO) is needed to obtain the resolution required to visualize the retina at the cellular level. Originally developed for astronomical imaging, AO performs wavefront correction of the light entering the eye using deformable optics, correcting the imperfections in the cornea and intra-ocular lens and permitting diffraction limited focusing on the retina. The purpose of my research program is to investigate novel OCT, AO, and related high resolution imaging technology to overcome the challenges to visualization of the retinal structure and biological function.

Short Term Objectives
1) Advance real-time OCT with quantitative analysis to guide retinal medical procedures;
2) Investigate Wavefront Sensorless Adaptive Optics for cellular resolution retinal imaging in vivo:
3) Demonstrate proof of concept experiments for light based retinal therapeutics.

Significance
Diseases affecting vision affect Canada’s aging population and amount to billions of dollars in direct costs to the Canadian health care system. The development of novel high resolution diagnostic imaging technology for eye clinics with the potential to detect degenerative changes in the retina earlier and with higher sensitivity is essential to timely vision preserving interventions. Furthermore, the development of high resolution and functional retinal imaging capabilities for preclinical applications has potential to accelerate the development of novel therapies for a broad range of vision robbing and neurological diseases. The technological development has strong potential for generation of novel intellectual property, and for commercialization of novel imaging systems for vision research and vision health care.