Unravelling the role of scleral events on a novel treatment for myopia using microscopy techniques
Myopia prevalence has increased dramatically in the last few decades. It has reached 30% among young population in Europe and U.S.A. and over 80% in Asia. However, refractive correction remains the only option for treatment. Myopia has been linked to the shifting balance between far- and near-vision activities and the resulting abnormal axial growth of the eye,
but many key questions remain unanswered, which are critical for exploring new treatments.

The goal of my research is to advance our understanding of myopic eyes and help to develop new treatments for myopia. As an important step, I propose to develop new innovative optical instruments with which we can characterize myopic eyes in unprecedented details to gain novel insights, and also to assess treatment effects objectively and comprehensively beyond conventional vision tests.

Specifically, I aim to accomplish the following: (a) substantial advances in the understanding of physical changes underlying myopia, (b) quantitative assessment of optical, structural, and mechanical properties of the eye during myopia development, and (c) anatomical- and structural-level assessment of novel interventions to stop myopia progression.

The applicant will lead this proposed project, termed MYOMICRO, as a collaborative project between the EU beneficiary (VioBio Lab, CSIC, Spain), and the partner organization (Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, USA). A short research stay (Visual Sciences group, University of Newcastle,
Australia) in a secondary partner organization is included. The outcome of this project will enhance the EU leading position in vision care.