Dr Mark Woolf

Biography

Research theme: Health
Research discipline: Medical Sciences
Research area
The surface of the cornea abuts directly up against the surrounding conjunctiva. It is not clear how the boundary between these two distinctly different tissues is maintained. This is an important question since common diseases affecting the eye often destroy the cornea-conjunctiva barrier. In such cases, the conjunctiva spreads across the surface of the eye, thus impairing vision. The present hypothesis is that cells derived from the surface of the cornea and conjunctiva respectively will display evidence of boundary-forming function in vitro, and that this property is related to production of molecules which belong to the Eph/ephrin family of proteins.
Current projects focus on examining the behaviour of corneal epithelial cells and conjunctival epithelial cells when cultured together in vitro, studying the expression of Eph and ephrin family proteins across the cornea-conjunctiva boundary in situ, and investigating the respective in vitro responses of corneal epithelial and conjunctival epithelial cells to select Eph and ephrin proteins identified in Aim 2 as potential markers of tissue boundary.
Areas of expertise

• Physiology


• Visual Psychophysics


• Vision and Driving