In 2018, CERA’s senior scientists supported six PhD and doctoral students to complete their degrees, and supervised a number of others working towards completion.

Dr Rose Tan was working towards her PhD in 2018, evaluating a marker to track the progression of age-related macular degeneration.

Dr Tan is measuring how well people can see in the dark and uses this to track the progress of the common, and complex, eye disease age-related macular degeneration.

Using a new dark adaptive chromatic (DAC) perimeter device, Dr Tan has been able to evaluate the progression of the disease by looking at rod functional changes over 12 months.

The device was designed in Victoria by Medmont, through a grant from the Beckman Initiative in Macular Research (USA).

“It’s a novel way of assessing dark adaptation in the early stages of age-related macular degeneration,” she says.

For Dr Tan, undertaking her PhD with the University of Melbourne through CERA has given her access to resources and the best in the field, including supervisors Professor Robyn Guymer AM and Associate Professor Chi Luu.

“It was a pleasure to supervise and mentor Rose during her PhD, and all the participants loved her cheery attitude,” says Professor Robyn Guymer. “Her project was quite arduous for both patient and tester, as it meant sitting in the dark for more than an hour, and several hours overall with each patient on more than one occasion.”

From here, Dr Tan plans to do further postdoctoral research in the United States.

“For me, CERA is a fantastic organisation that allows researchers to achieve their dreams,” she says.