Professor Chandra Balaratnasingam

• MBBS (Honours) – University of Western Australia
• PhD (High Distinction) – University of Western Australia
• Fellow Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists (FRANZCO)
• Editorial Board member for journal Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology that is published on behalf of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.
• Editorial Board member for journal Retinal Cases and Brief Reports.
• Principal Investigator or sub-PI for a range of pharma-sponsored clinical trials.
• Advisory Board Member for Bayer and Allergan Pharmaceuticals.

Academic Honours

• 2009 – Nomination by Australian Academy of Science to attend the 61st meeting of Nobel Laureates in Medicine and Physiology.
• 2011 – Recipient of the Robert Street prize. This is awarded by the University of Western Australia for the most outstanding thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy for the year.

Membership to Prestigious societies (by invitation)

• Member of The Macula Society
• Member of The Retina Society

1. Nicolela MT. Retinal vein pulsation predicts increasing optic disc excavation. Br J Ophthalmol 2007;91:405-406. (The significance and importance of my retinal vein pulsation work was discussed by Marcelo Nicolela in this editorial).
2. Hammond BR. Foveal Morphology and the Macular Carotenoids. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 2015;56(13):7866. (Dr. Billy Randall Hammond discusses the importance of my work that reported the correlation between the topological characteristics of the foveal avascular zone and the spatial profile of human macular pigments.)
3. Guymer R. Cuticular drusen: Clinical phenotypes and natural history defined using multimodal imaging. Ophthalmology 2018;125(1):100-118. (Professor Robyn Guymer discussed the major contribution my paper on cuticular drusen made to the field of age related macular degeneration).

1. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (August 2007)
2. Brain Research (March 2009)
3. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (June 2009)
4. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (January 2010)
5. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (June 2010)
6. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (August 2015)
7. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science (October 2018)
8. Ophthalmology Retina (2019).

• 2001: AMA J.G. Hunter Research Fellowship
  Sponsor: Australian Medical Association
  Value: $20,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2001: WB MacDonald Scholarship in Paediatrics
  Sponsor: Princess Margaret Hospital for Children
  Value: $15,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2002: Robert Vandongen Research Scholarship
  Sponsor: Royal Perth Hospital
  Value: $15,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2005-2008: Athelstan and Amy Saw Medical Research Scholarship
  Sponsor: The University of Western Australia
  Value: $120,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2005-2008: Medical Post-Graduate Research Scholarship
  Sponsor: National Health and Medical Research Council Australia
  Value: $150,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2009: ORIA/RANZCO EYE FOUNDATION GRANT
  Sponsor: Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia
  Value: $180,000
  Role: Sub-investigator
• 2014–2015: RANZCO Eye Foundation/Bayer Medical Retina Scholarship
  Sponsor: Bayer and RANZCO
  Value: $50,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2014–2015: Allergan/RANZCO Study Scholarship
  Sponsor: Allergan and RANZCO
  Value: $15,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2014–2015: MIGA Doctors in Training Grant
  Sponsor: The Medical Insurance Group
  Value: $10,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2016–2017: Near-Miss Merit Grant
  Sponsor: WA Department of Health
  Value: $50,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2017: Ray Florence Shaw Grant
  Sponsor: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
  Value: $30,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2018–2019: Raine priming Grant
  Sponsor: Raine Medical research Foundation
  Value: $140,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2019-2020: Ray Florence Shaw Grant
  Sponsor: Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital
  Value: $30,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2019-2021: Investigator Initiated Research Grant
  Sponsor: Bayer, Australia
  Value: $240,000
  Role: Principal investigator
• 2021-2022: Equipment Grant
  Sponsor: National Health and Medical research Council of Australia
  Value: $50,000
  Role: Co-Principal investigator
• 2021-2026: Investigator Initiated Research Grant
  Sponsor: Stan Perron Charitable Foundation
  Value: $ 2,425,000
  Role: Co-Principal investigator

Professor Balaratnasingam’s research is focused on understanding the mechanisms leading to vision loss in diabetic retinopathy. Diabetes mellitus is a silent pandemic in Australia and remains an important cause of irreversible vision loss in the working-age population. Professor Balaratnasingam combines his clinical expertise as a retina specialist together with laboratory-based investigational techniques to identify diagnostic and treatment strategies for diabetic retinopathy.

His research in the field of diabetic retinopathy follows three major streams:

1. Understanding early biomarkers of retinal injury in diabetes though longitudinal study and non-invasive clinical imaging.
2. Unravelling pathogenic mechanisms underlying neural-vascular-glial degeneration in diabetic retinopathy using laboratory techniques.
3. Evaluating new treatment strategies for the retinal complications of diabetes through clinical trial.