Robin Ali

The primary focus of my research group's work is to develop novel treatments for retinal disease. Over the past ten years we have been at the forefront of
investigating the basic aspects of gene transfer to the eye with a broad programme of work to develop gene therapy for eye disease and in particular for disorders affecting the retina, including inherited retinal degeneration as well as complex diseases such as those associated with retinal and choroidal neovascularisation and posterior uveitis.

We are now combining gene therapy approaches with that of stem cell transplantation (see below) and are particularly interested developing therapeutic approaches to treat age-related macular degeneration. We use a number of strategies including gene replacement and or siRNA to treat animal models of inherited retinal degeneration and delivery of genes encoding angiostatic, anti-apoptotic, immunomodulatory or neurotrophic molecules to treat a variety of animal models.