The National Health and Medical Research Council’s Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) project: From discovery to therapy in genetic eye diseases is a five-year $2.5 million national research effort to take the new discoveries in genetics of eye disease and translate them into improved patient care. This is a continuation of a previous CRE Translation of Genetic Eye Research. This project involves research teams from Western Australia, New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.
Professor Mackey is a lead researcher on two international consortia that made major discoveries of genes contributing to glaucoma and myopia:
- International Glaucoma Genetics Consortium, for which he has chaired the monthly teleconference for the last five years;
- Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia
A study involved in this research is the Ophthalmic Western Australian Biobank (OWAB) study. This research study consists of a large collection of blood and DNA from people with eye diseases as well as people with healthy eyes.
Comparing DNA between a large number of people with a specific eye disease (e.g. glaucoma) and a large number of people with healthy eyes will help us find out how your genes can influence your risk of eye disease.
