About
Professor Keith Martin
CERA Managing Director, Head of Glaucoma Research
Professor Keith Martin is CERA’s Managing Director. His research focus is on glaucoma, particularly investigating new strategies to protect and regenerate the optic nerve.
Professor Keith Martin
CERA Managing Director, Head of Glaucoma Research
MA BM BCh DM MRCP FRCOphth, FRANZCO FARVO ALCM
Professor Keith Martin is a clinician scientist ophthalmologist and Professor and Head of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne.
He was previously Professor and Head of Ophthalmology and Deputy Director of the Centre for Brain Repair at the University of Cambridge.
His research is focused on developing new strategies to protect and regenerate the optic nerve in glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. He was first in the world to demonstrate gene therapy and stem cell therapy could reduce retinal ganglion cell death in an experimental model of glaucoma.
A gene therapy for glaucoma developed in his lab is currently being progressed towards human clinical trials by a major pharmaceutical company. He has extensive experience in optic nerve injury models, including multiple animal models of glaucoma, retinal gene therapy and all relevant surgical techniques.
He is an experienced supervisor and mentor to graduate students, post docs and clinician scientists. Clinically, he specialises in the medical and surgical management of advanced glaucoma.
Key research questions
- Can gene therapy be used to treat patients with glaucoma whose vision is deteriorating despite conventional treatment to lower the eye pressure?
- Can we regenerate the damaged optic nerve to achieve useful restoration of vision?
- Can Vitamin B3 supplementation protect or improve visual function in glaucoma patients?
- Can high resolution imaging of aqueous outflow (Haemoglobin Video Imaging) help improve the efficacy of glaucoma surgery?
Current projects
Selected publications
My team
Key collaborators
Funding and support
Current projects
Gene therapy for glaucoma
Up to 1 in 8 patients with glaucoma go blind in at least one eye during their lifetime despite currently available treatments. We have developed a gene therapy that has been shown to protect vision in experimental models of glaucoma. We are currently working with Astellas Inc to progress this therapy towards human clinical trials.
Promoting retinal ganglion cell survival and optic nerve regeneration by enhancing transport of growth and survival receptors
We are using techniques that modulate axonal transport to protect retinal ganglion cells from the glaucomatous injury, and to stimulate orderly regrowth of injured axons. Integrins are molecules that can steer regeneration. This approach worked well for sensory neurons, however integrins are not efficiently transported in the optic nerve. We have studied the molecules that transport them. We found that if we manipulate integrin transport into axons other beneficial molecules come too, making the axon better at regenerating.
Our aim is to direct integrins and other molecules into the optic nerve. This should allow us to use integrins to make optic nerve axons regenerate, and to do this in an orderly fashion to their correct targets. Because integrins also bring other useful molecules with them, the approach should also protect optic nerve axons against damage.
The effect of Vitamin B3 supplementation on visual function in glaucoma
In a recent randomised clinical trial led by Professor Jonathan Crowston and Dr Flora Hui, 12 weeks of high-dose Vitamin B3 supplementation led to significant improvement in retinal function in patients with glaucoma. We are currently working to assess whether this improvement in retinal function is associated with reduction in long-term glaucoma progression.
Slow release latanoprost implant for the treatment of glaucoma
We are currently working with PolyActiva to conduct a Phase 2 clinical trial to investigate the use of a novel slow release implant to control eye pressure in patients with glaucoma.
Selected publications
Hui F, Tang J, Williams PA, McGuinness MB, Hadoux X, Casson RJ, Coote M, Trounce IA, Martin KR, van Wijngaarden P, Crowston JG. Improvement in inner retinal function in glaucoma with nicotinamide (vitamin B3) supplementation: A crossover randomized clinical trial. Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2020 Jul 28. doi: 10.1111/ceo.13818. Online ahead of print. PMID: 32721104
Khatib TZ, Meyer PAR, Lusthaus J, Manyakin I, Mushtaq Y, Martin KR. Hemoglobin Video Imaging Provides Novel In Vivo High-Resolution Imaging and Quantification of Human Aqueous Outflow in Patients with Glaucoma. Ophthalmol Glaucoma. 2019 Sep-Oct;2(5):327-335. doi: 10.1016/j.ogla.2019.04.001. PMID: 31788668
Osborne A, Khatib TZ, Songra L, Barber AC, Hall K, Kong GYX, Widdowson PS, Martin KR. Neuroprotection of retinal ganglion cells by a novel gene therapy construct that achieves sustained enhancement of brain-derived neurotrophic factor/tropomyosin-related kinase receptor-B signaling. Cell Death Dis. 2018 Sep 26;9(10):1007. doi: 10.1038/s41419-018-1041-8. PMID: 30258047
Pearson CS, Mencio CP, Barber AC, Martin KR, Geller HM. Identification of a critical sulfation in chondroitin that inhibits axonal regeneration. Elife. 2018 May 15;7. pii: e37139. doi: 10.7554/eLife.37139. PMID: 29762123
Osborne A, Wang AXZ, Tassoni A, Widdowson PS, Martin KR. Design of a Novel Gene Therapy Construct to Achieve Sustained Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Signaling in Neurons. Hum Gene Ther. 2018 Jul;29(7):828-841. doi: 10.1089/hum.2017.069. PMID: 29466871
Osborne A, Sanderson J, Martin KR. Neuroprotective Effects of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Platelet-Derived Growth Factor on Human Retinal Ganglion Cells. Stem Cells. 2018 Jan;36(1):65-78. doi: 10.1002/stem.2722. Epub 2017 Oct 31. PMID: 29044808
Weinreb RN, Leung CK, Crowston JG, Medeiros FA, Friedman DS, Wiggs JL, Martin KR. Primary open-angle glaucoma. Nature Review Disease Primers. 2016 Sep 22;2:16067. doi: 10.1038/nrdp.2016.67. PMID: 27654570
Johnson TV, DeKorver NW, Levasseur V, Osborne A, Tassoni A, Lorber B, Heller JP, Villasmil R, Bull ND, Martin KR*, Tomarev SI*. Identification of retinal ganglion cell neuroprotection conferred by platelet-derived growth factor through analysis of the mesenchymal stem cell secretome. Brain. 2014 Feb;137(Pt 2):503-19. doi: 10.1093/brain/awt292. Epub 2013 Oct 30. PMID: 24176979 *Joint senior and corresponding authors
See more publications
My team
- Dr Flora Hui – Post Doctoral Researcher, CERA
- Dr Andrew Osborne – Post Doctoral Researcher, University of Cambridge
- Randa Abu-Yussef – PhD student, University of Cambridge
- Jennifer Jia – PhD student, University of Cambridge
- Tasneem Khatib – MD student, University of Cambridge
- Roxanne Liou – Co-supervised PhD student, CERA/University of Melbourne
- Fiona Love – PhD student, University of Cambridge
- Jed Lusthaus FRANZCO – PhD student, University of Sydney
- Michael Whitehead –PhD student, University of Cambridge
Key collaborators
CERA:
University of Cambridge:
- Prof James Fawcett
- Dr Richard Eva
Karolinska Institute, Stockholm:
- Dr Pete Williams
Duke / National University of Singapore:
- Prof Jonathan Crowston
Funding and support
Thank you to the following organisations for their support:
- Fight for Sight
- Medical Research Council
- Cambridge Eye Trust
- Jean Miller Foundation
- Connie and Craig Kimberley Fund
Contact Professor Keith Martin
keith.martin@unimelb.edu.au
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