The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers rewards early career research

The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers rewards early career research

The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers (WCSM) last week announced the winners of its annual bronze medal award competitions for vision research.

Both the winning submissions demonstrated models for earlier diagnosis of significant eye disease and have the capacity to contribute to efforts to understand, and prevent, causes of blindness.  For the first time in many years, both medal winners are based in London.

The 2024 Master’s Medal was awarded to Dr Bledi Petriti, who achieved his PhD from the Institute of Ophthalmology/University College London, in April 2024,  Dr Petriti is continuing his work at the Institute under the supervision of Professor David Garway-Heath, who is also a consultant at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Dr Petriti is also now a post-doctoral Fellow at Yale University.

He was awarded the medal for his contribution to the paper “Peripheral blood mononuclear cell respiratory function is associated with progressive glaucomatous vision loss” which was published in Nature Medicine in June 2024.  The work showed an association between lower mitochondrial function and faster visual field loss, even when intraocular pressure has been treated. This opens up the possibility that mitochondrial activity, assessed with a blood test, could be used as a new biomarker leading to more personalised treatments and future new therapies for glaucoma, still one of the leading causes of blindness in the world.

The Company’s prestigious Ruskell Medal, named after the late ocular anatomist and Liveryman of WCSM, Professor Gordon Ruskell, recognises research likely to have a significant impact on our understanding of vision. Applicants for this medal are usually 5-7 years post-doctorate. However, this year’s Medal was awarded to another very early-career researcher, Dr Yukun Zhou, for work done as part of his PhD, achieved in January 2024.  Dr Zhou is working in the laboratory led by Professor Pearse Keane, Professor of Artificial Medical Intelligence at UCL/Institute of Ophthalmology,

Dr Zhou’s paper “A foundation model for generalizable disease detection from retinal images” was considered the best of all papers submitted this year and therefore deserving of the 2024 Ruskell Medal.  The paper developed and demonstrated a large AI model trained on over 1.6 million OCT and colour fundus images that, when adapted, successfully outperformed other AI systems in the diagnosis and prognosis of sight threatening eye disease, as well as cardiovascular and neurogenerative conditions. This research is different in its claim to be able to use techniques to identify a range of sight-threatening and complex systemic disorders rather than linking AI analysis of images to specific diseases. The paper was published in “Nature” in September 2023 and has already achieved almost 200 citations.

New Master of the Company, Mike Harris, who took up  office on 2 October, said “The medal awards for this year highlight the huge impact of both OCT and AI on our understanding of vision. As a Company, our mission for almost 400 years has been to support better vision for all. Research of this quality gives bright hope for even more discoveries relating to better vision, earlier diagnosis and new therapies to treat eye disease and prevent blindness.