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- Professor of Retinal Neurodegeneration and Glaucoma Studies
- Institute of Ophthalmology
- Faculty of Brain Sciences
Professor
M Francesca Cordeiro, is a clinician scientist. She currently heads the
"Glaucoma and Retinal Neurodegeneration Research Group" at the
Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, and is Professor of Ophthalmology at Imperial College of London. She is an Honorary
Glaucoma Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Western Eye Hospital, Imperial
College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, where she is Director of the Clinical
Trials Research Unit, Chairman of ICORG (Imperial College Ophthalmic Research Group).
She
qualified in medicine from St Bartholomew’s Hospital University of London and
completed training in general and surgical ophthalmology at Moorfield’s Eye
& St Thomas’ Hospitals in London in 2003, following her PhD at UCL in 1998.
Her
research is focused on the molecular mechanisms involved in either the
treatment or pathogenesis of retinal neurodegenerative diseases, including
glaucoma, Alzheimer’s and diabetes. The aims of her group’s work
are to establish new methods of diagnosis of early disease to avoid disability,
identify early markers of cell processes in neurodegenerative disease and
investigate therapeutic approaches including novel modes of drug delivery and improved
treatment strategies. She
has investigated novel and translational approaches to these problems, and has
received a number of awards for her work including Research to Prevent
Blindness International Research Scholar Award USA in 2014, an Allergan
Glaucoma Achievement Award 2010, the Lewis Rudin Glaucoma Prize 2005 from the
New York Academy of Medicine, the 2000 International Glaucoma Review Award, and
the 1998 Moorfields Research Gold Medal.
Her research
has been funded by the Wellcome Trust since 1996, including a Vision Research
Fellowship, a University Award, and most recently a Welllcome Translational
Award for the DARC Project.
She serves on a number of
international committees including the European Glaucoma Society and EVER
and has a special interest in neuroprotection in glaucoma and
neurodegenerative diseases, and currently chairs the EGS Neuroprotection SIG.
She is on the Editorial Board of various journals including Investigative
Ophthalmology, Experimental Eye Research and Scientifica. She has been graduate
tutor at UCL and teaches modules for both under and post-graduates.




The aims of my groups work are to: To provide innovative imaging tools (such as DARC) for the early diagnosis and identification of blinding conditions such as: Glaucoma Diabetic eye disease Retinal detachment and Macular degeneration To offer meaningful endpoints and investigate novel therapeutic approaches in neuroprotection and sight-saving strategies in the eye To promote the eye as a window for the rest of the brain with particular reference to Alzheimers disease These are to be achieved using novel non-invasive techniques to assess structural and functional changes in different models of disease and their treatment, with a view to offering quick and effective translation to the clinical arena, enabled through my post as an Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist. DARC offers the opportunity to image changes occurring in retinal nerve cells apoptosing over hours, days and months, will potentially provide a powerful new clinical tool with which to diagnose and identify patients with early glaucoma before they lose vision, and opens the door to directly observing effects of therapeutic strategies in glaucoma using meaningful endpoints that are based on the direct assessment of RGC death. It may also serve as a surrogate biomarker of outcome in glaucoma clinical studies, dramatically reducing the duration of such trials that currently rely on the use of visual field status as a key endpoint. Nerve cell loss is implicated in chronic and devastating neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease. There is increasing evidence that similar mechanisms in the eye and the brain cause the development of this nerve cell loss. This suggests that the processes of cell death occurring in the eye may be an indicator of, or window on, cell death occurring in other parts of the brain. We have already shown that it is possible to assess therapeutic and sight-saving strategies using our methods and this has great implications in the testing and validation of neuroprotective regimens in all aspects of neurodegeneration including Alzheimers Disease. We have also recently begun investigating the importance of retinal neurodegeneration in diabetic retinopathy. Current thinking suggests that an early event in retinopathy that precedes ischaemia and neovascularisation is nerve cell loss. Retinal neuronal apoptosis may therefore be an valuable screening and diagnostic marker. We shortly commence a proof-of-principle clinical trial not only in glaucoma patients. Our final aim is to establish an apoptotic index of cell degeneration with which individuals can be diagnosed and also monitored to assess treatment response or progression rates. This may help negate or avoid visual loss ever occurring in the first place, as the use of DARC in these patients will be as a screening investigation to help identify patients with early disease.
Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist | Western Eye Hospital | Imperial Healthcare Trust, United Kingdom | |
01-JAN-2017 | Professor of Ophthalmology | Surgery and Cancer | Imperial College London, United Kingdom |
1998 | Doctor of Philosophy | University College London | |
1992 | Fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists | Royal College of Ophthalmologists | |
1990 | Member of the Royal College of Physicians | Royal College of Physicians | |
1987 | Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery | St Bartholomews Hospital |