Inside eye

The director | Professor Andrew D Dick

Professor Andrew D Dick is Duke-Elder Chair and Director at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, Co-Director of the NIHR Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and a Consultant Ophthalmologist at University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.

For the last nine years, I’ve had the incredible privilege of leading the Institute of Ophthalmology at UCL. 

It may surprise some that my research passion is immunobiology. At the start of my career, I trained in internal medicine before switching to ophthalmology, as I was then taken aback by how hard it was to find out what was going on in certain conditions.

Where I was at a loss, my colleagues in ophthalmology would sometimes jump in and tell me: “Oh, we can see everything!”. That is the little-known insight that the eye can give you; it is a unique window inside the workings of the human body.  

This led to my working as a practising ophthalmologist – as I still am today – when I received the opportunity to join UCL.

Even at that point, the university was known for its cross-disciplinary approach and affiliation with Moorfields Eye Hospital. Those two invaluable assets gave us real potential to make a difference not only for people with visual disablement but those with other conditions for which the eye holds unique insight.

In 2025, Moorfields has one of the busiest outpatient departments in secondary and tertiary care. Cases of visual disability are increasing in line with changes in our population, and this has a profound effect on both individual welfare and the functioning of our healthcare system.

That leads researchers like me to two questions: one, how do we achieve earlier diagnosis and personalised care for these patients? And two, how do we equip people to live fuller lives?

To find answers, our institute works in partnership across UCL and across two distinct spectra. The first is about preventing or pre-empting disease through discovery science and developing new personalised therapies, and the other is focused on making society more inclusive for people with sight loss.

So, our role is not only to contribute the science and clinical work which is bringing rapid progression in diagnostics and treatments. It is to look at absolutely everything at UCL – from the built environment to public policy – in order to engineer solutions which mitigate the impact of these conditions. 

There are several aspects to our work that I consider transformational right now. 

With advances in imaging and AI, we are innovating at tremendous pace when it comes to diagnosis. We also continue to develop new gene and cell-based therapies, which have the real potential to improve outcomes for a range of rare and common diseases. 

Just as fascinatingly we are gaining new understanding of how the eye can predict changes in our wider health, including cases of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, or cardiovascular diseases. Ophthalmology is increasingly enabling other medical disciplines to identify risk for patients and introduce treatments far sooner than would otherwise be possible. 

These findings give us real hope – and underpin our most ambitious project, which is to create a new centre for eye health at which we can seize the scientific moment and fully integrate our work with that of our partners. 

Due to open in 2027, it will bring endless benefits: from bringing the public into our research and engagement activities, to removing the barriers between patient care and research and enabling a seamless flow of ideas and information between researchers and clinicians. 

But most of all, the building will act as a beacon – for our new neighbours in London’s Knowledge Quarter, and for partners and collaborators nationwide. As a convening point for expertise across different areas, the centre will be home to an entire community working towards a single, common goal. 

In my near decade as director, I have not experienced a situation like this. We have momentum in our work and real excellence in our people – and together with our Oriel partners, a shared sense of purpose about the opportunities that lie ahead.

The researcher | Professor Mariya Moosajee

Professor Mariya Moosajee is Professor of Molecular Ophthalmology at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, a Consultant Ophthalmologist specialising in Genetic Eye Disease and Head of the Genetics Service at Moorfields Eye Hospital, and Group Leader of Ocular Genomics and Therapeutics at the Francis Crick Institute in London.

A revolution in gene therapy

We are working on a non-viral gene therapy. Until now, healthy copies of genes have been delivered to the retinal models using a virus. This can cause significant immune and inflammatory reactions within the eye and can only hold smaller genes.

Our non-viral delivery vectors are much safer: they do not contain any viral components and use circular DNA to hold genes of any size.

We have strong proof-of-concept that this works for several genetic eye conditions and are now testing several nanoparticles with potential for use in clinical trials.

As a clinician scientist, my work is split between UCL Institute of Ophthalmology with Moorfields Eye Hospital. I specialise in genetic eye disease, and so my team and I are looking to improve diagnostics and develop treatments for people who inherit rare, blinding conditions. 

As a junior doctor, it used to upset me that patients with these diseases were told that they were going to go blind and there was nothing to be done; I saw the emotional turmoil that a diagnosis like that brings to patients and loved ones and I desperately wanted to change it. To provide hope.  

I decided to further my training as both a clinician and a scientist. My patients are my greatest priority. When they meet me for the first time, they often have two questions: one, what is the cause of the condition? And two, is there a treatment?  

The answers are often complex, but working with affected families means there is a significant overlap with my research. Patients often participate and sometimes I can even use the resources in my lab to answer direct questions about clinical cases, which is a testament to the close relationship between UCL and Moorfields.  

When you commit to researching a specific condition, you start with one or two big questions. From those, another five or ten will arise. In the search for answers, you uncover unknown aspects about disease mechanisms, biomarkers, natural history and targets for potential therapeutics.

Modern medicine is based on the accumulation of findings like these and I am proud to be contributing to this . I also am a strong believer in open science, so my work is hosted in open access databases and – where I have generated cell or animal models – I actively share these with the scientific community so others can use them to accelerate their own projects. 

Philanthropy has been key; it has allowed me to expedite research, and to train and retain amazing scientists who may otherwise have been lost due to short contracts which are all too common in academia. But of course, the investment and support of our community is most obvious in remarkable facilities like our future eye care centre. 

When I joined Moorfields Eye Hospital in 2010 and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology in 2011, both were already world-leading – but are currently based in cramped buildings with limited facilities and restricted floor plans. 

I have always been used to a more open plan approach where you have communal spaces to allow for collaboration to thrive. With both organisations being fully integrated from 2027, we will have those opportunities; a much stronger partnership; and ultimately even greater successes on behalf of our patients. 

This building cannot have come at a better time for our work. 

Ten years ago, getting a diagnosis of a genetic eye condition was challenging. Now, testing is routinely available on the NHS. To have this new facility as we embrace an era of genomic medicine is a hugely exciting prospect, and I hope that in another ten years’ time we will see consequences of that. 

The patient | Chris Telesford

Chris Telesford is a volunteer patient safety partner at Moorfields Eye Hospital, an entrepreneur, and a Taekwondo Para-Poomsae athlete for Great Britain.

At 44, I’ve been a patient of Moorfields since November 1980 – when I was just one month old. 

I was diagnosed at the time with a bilateral coloboma [missing tissue] of the optic disc with nystagmus [involuntary movement], and at that point I was the only person that Moorfields had ever seen with a coloboma of that type. Even now, I only know of one other person who shares my exact condition. 

Unfortunately, that incredible rarity means that there is comparatively little research into bespoke treatments. 

However, I am one of thousands to benefit from the incredible progress being made in ophthalmic research. As well as a corrected retinal tear, I have had two cataract operations – both of which have hugely improved my vision. If you go back only 15 years, these are procedures that would not have been an effective treatment option for me. 

While I am registered blind, my vision is a world away from what it was – and the Moorfields community goes far beyond the clinical treatments available at any given time. 

There is a huge focus on helping individual patients to live well with their diagnosis. That can involve support in the use of assistive technology but just as often means giving people the practical guidance and motivation to go out and achieve their aspirations. 

With this support, I have recently completed an MBA and regularly compete as part of the GB Para Poomsae Taekwondo squad – the culmination of a four-decade passion for martial arts which I’ve now been inspired to share with others living with sight loss. 

This human, holistic view is what makes Moorfields Eye Hospital and Moorfields Eye Charity so special – and in partnership with UCL they can help millions more people like me, not just in the UK but around the world. 

The research that takes place here is second to none. I have heard from US-based patients who say “You know what? I want to go to the world leaders.” and have travelled to London because of what is taking place here right now. 

The opening of the new eye care centre will elevate this to another level.  

It streamlines access to those vital services and will mark the first-time organisations of this incredible calibre are able to do real-time research alongside us, the patients. The impact will be nothing short of phenomenal.  

It’s why I am so proud to serve as a volunteer patient safety partner at Moorfields – and as we get nearer to this move, one of my roles is to engage with fellow patients and make sure their voices are heard at every stage of this process. The remit is vast; it’s almost a full-time job on its own! 

When I meet with patients – some of whom have many spent many decades as outpatients at the existing hospital site – some do express anxieties or practical concerns about the move. It is my job to reflect that to project leaders and work hard to address them. 

However, I have seen first-hand that treatment and patient experience is only going to get better. In fact, I sometimes wonder – if the Oriel partnership and the new centre had been around in the 1980s, is there a chance I would now have perfect vision?  

I can’t know the answer. So, I am looking to the future, and the chance to build an accessible and inclusive eye care centre for the 21^st century which gives more people with sight loss the chance at a healthy and fulfilling life.