New equipment to give researchers a more comprehensive view of the retina in lab-based studies is providing a major boost for several CERA research teams.

Your donations have been used purchase a wide-angle imaging device that is helping to accelerate our pre-clinical research attempting to find new treatments to beat vision loss caused by diseases that damage the retina.

Previously, our researchers could only capture images of the retina within a limited 30-degree range using the existing optical coherence tomography machine.

This meant that the outer edges of the retina could not be imaged. If researchers wanted to capture the mid-periphery of the retina, they needed to take and individually align at least nine separate images – a time-consuming and laborious process.

With the addition of the new imaging device – the widefield imaging module – the visual field of the machine is expanded up to 102 degrees.

This allows researchers to capture both the mid-peripheral and the far-peripheral retina quickly and easily in one image – enabling them to analyse a greater area of the retina in a much shorter space of time.

The new technology will have an immediate impact on multiple research units – including Macular Research, Bionic Eye Research, Cellular Reprogramming and Genetic Engineering.

It will reduce data collection times and provide a more accurate and reliable assessment of outcomes from current projects.

“We would not have been able to purchase the widefield imaging module without the generous support of our donors,” says CERA Senior Research Fellow, Dr Carla Abbott.

“Improving our pre-clinical research means that new treatments can be assessed for clinical trial viability sooner, with the hope that sight-saving therapies can reach patients faster.”

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