Ophthalmology
Which genes affected in strctural renal disease and renal complement diseases? - also offered as MBiomedSc
Supervisors: Prof Savige and A/Prof Deb Colville
Project Site: Department of Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital
Contact: Prof Savige on 8344 3260 or j.savige@unimelb.edu.au
Project description: The genes for many forms of inherited renal disease are still unknown. We have several families with inherited disease in whom we will try to identify the abnormal genes. This involves carefully characterizing clinical features, collecting DNA, undertaking exomic sequencing, and checking for mutations in candidate genes. Any possible mutation will then be confirmed in other affected family members by DNA sequencing.
Techniques to be used and skills acquired: This project involves patient contact, a small amount of lab work and how to interpret DNA sequence abnormalities.
Feasibility: All the techniques for this project are already available in our laboratory.
Small vessel disease causing stroke and dementia - also offered as MBiomedSc
Supervisors: Prof Savige, A/Prof Deb Colville
Project Site: Department of Medicine, Royal Melbourne Hospital
Contact: Prof Savige on 8344 3260 or jsavige@unimelb.edu.au
Project description: This project involves taking retinal photographs in patients undergoing brain MRI and correlating any small vessel disease in the retina with strokes/’white matter ischemia’. This study is to investigate whether retinal photographs might be useful in predicting patients who will develop a stroke and in whom greater attention to blood pressure control might prevent disability and even death.
Techniques to be used and skills acquired: This project involves patient contact, and learning how to take retinal photographs and how to interpret retinal abnormalities.
Feasibility: We already have Human Research Ethics Committee Approval for this project, and many of the medical students who have undertaken similar projects during a research year have achieved a publication from their work study. Nevertheless whenever the small vessels in the heart are affected, small vessels are diseased throughout the body. This includes the vessels in the retina, which are very accessible using a retinal camera and photography. So we propose to examine the retinal small vessels as a model for the coronary arterioles and determine whether renal failure or diabetes means these vessels are diseased and respond less well to medication.
This study involves recruiting patients from the wards with renal failure or diabetes and testing the effect of a tablet that usually dilates small vessels. You will help the patient fill out a questionnaire and also take their blood pressure and retinal photographs, and then review the photographs under the supervision of an ophthalmologist. In addition the retinal photos will be sent to the Centre for Eye Research Australia for the vessel diameters to be measured precisely. The aim of this project is then to determine whether small vessels are less responsive in diabetes and renal failure, and whether medication doses should be increased. The analysis includes univariate and multivariate statistics and backwards linear regression (we will help you with the statistics).
Retinal small vessel disease in pregnancy – also offered as MBiomedSc
Supervisors: Prof Judy Savige and A/Prof Deb Colville
Project Site: Northern Health
Contact: Prof Judy Savige 8344 3260 or j.savige@unimelb.edu.au
Project description: This study investigates retinal endothelial responsiveness in normal pregnancy and in patients with pregnancy associated hypertension, diabetes and small for gestational age babies. It uses a non-mydriatic retinal camera and the ‘flicker’ machine/camera
The aim is to understand better these diseases of pregnancy (retinal small vessels resemble the placental small vessels). In addition it may be possible to use retinal small vessel changes to identify those women at risk of pregnancy associated hypertension, diabetes or small for gestational dates babies) and to monitor treatment.
This is a very clinical project with lots of patient contact