The discipline of Ophthalmology is recognised both as an early adopter of new technology and a developer of novel techniques. Soon after lasers were invented, they were being used to treat diabetic eyes and new lasers developed into exquisite tools for reshaping the cornea in refractive surgery. In electronics the possibility of artificial vision in blind people and robots is becoming reality. In biology, advances in transplantation science have increased the numbers of treatable conditions. From stem cells to genetic manipulation, technological advances have the potential to cure blindness in ways not thought possible a decade ago.
This is a part of Professor Ayliffe's 2012/2013 series of lectures as Gresham Professor of Physic. The other lectures in this series include:
The Aging Eye
The Evolution of Vision
Vision and the Artist
The Window on the Soul
Professor William Ayliffe is Emeritus Professor of Physic at Gresham College and a Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Lister Hospital in London. As well as being a practising clinician and teacher, he also continues to carry out clinical research into the prevention of blindness.
After taking a first in Immunology at Imperial College, Professor Ayliffe qualified in Medicine in St. Bartholomew's Hospital London. Specialising in inflammatory eye diseases and corneal and cataract surgery he held a research registrar post at Oxford, before training in clinical ophthalmology in Bristol, Manchester and Harvard USA. His PhD was on mechanisms of corneal transplant failure. He has worked in developing countries and also with ORBIS, the international flying eye hospital.
In addition to general ophthalmology, Professor Ayliffe has developed a local and tertiary referral service for cornea, uveitis and inflammatory eye disease. Professor Ayliffe is a winner of the prestigious Wix Prize for the History of Medicine and the Kabi-Pharmacia Prize for immunological mechanisms of corneal transplant rejection. He is a Reviewer for a number of professional journals including Eye, British Journal of Ophthalmology, Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, he is an Examiner for the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and an Advisor to the UK Transplant Service. He has undertaken wide media and TV work for the national press, the BBC and Channel 4, has an extensive range of publications and has delivered prestigious lectures all over the world.
Professor Ayliffe took up his Gresham Professorship in 2009, the 200th anniversary of Louis Braille's birth. His lectures offered a cultural and scientific survey of the eye and vision, centring on the biological and cultural aspects of the human eye and vision, covering the overlapping medical, philosophical and humanitarian concerns of this area.
All of Professor Ayliffe's previous lectures may be accessed here.
Professor John Marshall is Professor of Ophthalmology at the Institute of Ophthalmology in association with Moorfield's Eye Hospital, UCL and was until 2009 the Frost Professor of Ophthalmology and Chairman of the Academic Department of Ophthalmology, at St Thomas' Hospital, KCL.
His research over the past forty years has covered a range of ocular problems but has concentrated on the inter-relationships between light and aging, the mechanisms underlying age-related, diabetic and inherited retinal disease, and the development of lasers for use in ophthalmic diagnosis and surgery. This work has resulted in almost 400 research papers and numerous book chapters and books.
He invented and patented the revolutionary Excimer laser for the correction of refractive disorders with in excess of 30 million procedures now having been undertaken worldwide. He also created the world's first Diode laser for treating eye problems of diabetes, glaucoma and aging.
Professor Marshall is editor and co-editor of numerous international journals.
Over his 18-year career in ophthalmology, Professor Dan Reinstein has built an international reputation as a uniquely experienced and pioneering laser eye surgeon. He graduated from Cambridge University, underwent postgraduate training in the USA and Canada and was made a professor at the University of Paris VI and Columbia University in New York before returning to the UK to establish the London Vision Clinic.