The department of Ophthalmology is led by Prof. Sorcha Ni Dhubhghaill. As part of an academic center, we are dedicated to research and driven by the commitment to improve currently available treatment options or develop new procedures for the benefit of our patients.

Our research ranges from translational to clinical research. The focus of our bench-to-bedside translational research is currently on alternatives for conventional corneal transplantation. With a worldwide shortage of available donor tissue for corneal transplantation there is an urgent need to develop either more donor-efficient or donor-independent graft alternatives. Culturing corneal endothelial cells on bioengineered cell carriers offers the possibility to ‘build’ corneal grafts in the lab. This requires rigorous in-vitro testing of the cell-carrier constructs to evaluate the cell characteristics, the biomechanical properties, and the surgical handling of the bioengineered grafts. With national and international collaboration partners we bring together the expertise to further optimize the bioengineered grafts for clinical applications.

The focus of our clinical research is on comparing the outcomes of currently available treatment preferences and on benchmarking the standard treatment of care against new treatment options. The ongoing BEST CORNEA study is currently the largest randomized clinical trial comparing the outcomes of the two standard endothelial keratoplasty techniques Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) and Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) for a broad range of surgery indications. In another project, we aim together with international collaboration partners at improving epithelial wound healing after refractive procedures to minimize pain and discomfort for patients after these procedures. For cataract patients, we are looking into options to improve spectacle-independence while minimizing optical side-effects by evaluating novel lens combinations.