Dr Jill Cowing joined the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology in 1992 and completed her PhD on ‘Sequence, Evolution and Regulation of Opsin Genes in Fish’ in 2001.  She has split her time between research and laboratory management and has worked on a number of projects including: investigating the role of the alternative complement pathway in age related macular degeneration; genotyping patients for mutations in CNGA3 and CNGB3 to identify suitable individuals for inclusion in gene therapy trials; characterising the KCNV2 gene, mutations in which cause a rare cone dystrophy exhibiting supernormal rod response; genotyping patients for mutations in AIPL1, a cause of Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis; the genetics of vertebrate colour vision and spectral tuning of visual pigments.  Jill is now the Environment & Safety Manager within the Institute of ophthalmology.