BSc (Hons) PhD FAAO

Retina Retinal imaging Photoreceptor degenerations

School of Optometry and Vision Science, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, NSW, Australia Centre for Eye Health, Sydney, NSW, Australia, 2052,

Dr. Nivison-Smith is currently an early career researcher at the Centre for Eye Health and the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of New South Wales. She did her undergraduate degree in molecular biology and genetics at the University of Sydney and then honors looking at the effect of fatty acids on amyloid proteins which form in the pancreas of type II diabetics. After honors, Lisa continued to a Ph.D. with Professor Tony Weiss in tissue engineering, making a synthetic blood vessel model which could be used for testing therapeutics in vitro. She finished her Ph.D. in 2011 and moved fields again, starting in the field of vision science at UNSW Sydney with Professor Michael Kalloniatis. She helped establish the Retinal Networks Laboratory and more recently the clinical research group at the Centre for Eye Health. Lisa’s current research interests lie in retinal disease biology, particularly photoreceptor degenerations such as age-related macular degeneration and Retinitis Pigmentosa. She focuses on anatomical and functional changes which occur in the early stages of disease using clinical data obtained from patients attending the Centre For Eye Health and rodent models of retinal disease.