Dr. Jennifer Hunter, professor at the School of Optometry and Vision Science, is combining engineering and science to build a fluorescence imaging tool that measures biomarkers of disease to aid in vision loss prevention. Hunter’s research focuses on using an adaptive optics imaging technique to investigate how the cell layers within the back of the eye, specifically the retina, can change when infected by a disease.
Hunter explains how her imaging combines adaptive optics with single and two-photon microscopes designed for use in the eye to collect non-invasive fluorescence images of specific small portions of the retina. The researchers will then “piece the story together” by looking at the targeted portions, instead of looking at the whole retina. The fluorescence imaging tool provides an accurate view of different cell layers in the retina including the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), which protects and supports the retina. These imaging techniques allow the researchers to identify healthy versus unhealthy cells.
“I’m really interested in the cell layers because they are implicated in a lot of diseases,” Hunter says. “For example, with age-related macular degeneration, it is a very common blinding disorder that causes changes within the RPE cell layers. By sending in a short wavelength of green light, we can get red light back out to understand how much fluorescence is present in the RPE cell layers.”
Using adaptive optics imaging combined with the fluorescence lifetime imaging on the molecular scale, Hunter’s goal is to be able to use and apply her research within a patient’s eye at early stages before a disease takes full effect and provide that patient with early treatments to prevent vision loss.
“We have some evidence that even in early stages in patients that have been diagnosed as clinically normal, they have a few markers that might lead to a disease,” Hunter says.
Hunter’s research models that have eye and vision disease will help support other professionals who can conduct clinical trials for treatment options by checking the progression of the disease using the fluorescence imaging capability. Hunter will soon publish a research paper which shows the fluorescence lifetime in the RPE cell layers between young versus older adults.
The next step in Hunter’s research focuses on looking at people with Stargardt disease, an inherited disorder which causes vision loss during childhood and adolescence. Hunter’s research will start looking into understanding what fluorescence changes are happening at a molecular cell level within the eyes of people with Stargardt disease.
While reflecting on her research experience, Hunter recalls other people saying that her research is not a promising idea or that it is not going to work. “I think the most important advice is to follow your passions and not give up on your dreams — dare to do the impossible.”
“If it’s not working and you don’t think something’s possible, then prove that it’s not possible,” Hunter says, giving advice to master’s and PhD students pursuing their research. “In doing that I have found numerous discoveries and proved myself wrong along the way. So, pursue the research that you think will be the most interesting and make sure you are passionate about what you are doing.”
