OCULAR DISEASE AND EARLY ONSET MYOPIA
Dr Jessica Mountford
Brian King Fellow &
Head of Functional Molecular Vision Group
Lions Eye Institute, Western Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Perth, Western Australia | November 2024
Dr Jessica Mountford received her highly ranked PhD from Monash University, Melbourne, in 2012, in the field of biochemistry and clinical haematology. Her work investigating novel ways to prevent thrombosis, a leading cause of heart attack and stroke, led to a first author publication in Nature Communications.
Following this, Dr Mountford relocated to Perth and went on to complete two post-doctoral appointments at the University of Western Australia, where she began research on the comparative evolution of visual and non-visual opsin across species of vertebrate, from the primitive lamprey to human.
During this period Dr Mountford began researching novel genetic variants associated with myopia development. With Adjunct Research Fellow appointments held at La Trobe University in Melbourne, and the University of Western Australia, Dr Mountford is currently the 6th Brian King Fellow and the Head of the Functional Molecular Vision Group at the Lions Eye Institute in Perth where she researches both the genetic and environmental factors involved in the development of early-onset myopia.
Dr Mountford has successfully established Western Australia’s first and only ocular genetic screening platform using zebrafish and utilises this model to help elucidate some of the complex gene-environment interactions responsible for the development of myopia.
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Relationship between mental illness and mental wellbeing
Since 2015, Dr Matthew Iasiello has been working on the development and dissemination of mental wellbeing interventions across the Australian community at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). His PhD research was designed specifically to strengthen the translational work conducted by SAHMRI, and to solve problems that represented gaps in the literature that were arising when delivering mental wellbeing interventions into the community. The impact and relevance of Dr Iasiello’s work has been demonstrated with invited presentations at international academic conferences, and multiple media stories with significant online engagements.
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Clinical pathways for acute care in Tasmanian Emergency Departments
Assoc Prof Viet Tran has built Emergency Medicine Research in Tasmania from the ground up, which has culminated in the success of a AUD$3 million Australian Government Medical Research Futures Fund grant looking into the Implementation of Clinical Pathways for Acute Care in Tasmania project. Dr Tran is also the Emergency Medicine Discipline lead within the Tasmanian School of Medicine and has key roles to play within Emergency Medicine training. He feels privileged to be able to teach and mentor across the whole spectrum of becoming a doctor, from watching students grow into junior doctors, senior registrar and as fellow medical specialists.
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Lasers, microbiology and dental materials in clinical dental practice
Professor Laurence Walsh AO is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Queensland, holding an adjunct title at Griffith University and a part-time position as the Chief Dental Officer at Dentroid, which is based in Canberra. In addition to these roles, he serves on several committees of the Dental Association and is the current president of the Australian Society for Laser Dentistry.
