About
Professor Mark Daniell
Head of Corneal Research
Professor Mark Daniell is an ophthalmic surgeon and leads CERA’s corneal research. He is working to develop a tissue-engineered cornea.
Professor Mark Daniell
Head of Corneal Research
MB BS, MS, FRANZCO, FRACS
Professor Mark Daniell is Head of Corneal Research at CERA and a senior consultant at The Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital – serving as Head of the Corneal Service from 2011 to 2024 and overseeing a team of surgeons performing corneal transplantation for Victoria.
He has a significant research interest in a bioengineered cornea, developing the concepts for this project and being the driving force gathering together the collaboration partners.
He has had successful collaborations with numerous groups both nationally and internationally, including an ongoing project with Professor Greg Qiao at the University of Melbourne and Professor Damien Harkin at QUT on tissue engineering for the eye. He has supervised several postgraduate students in the field of tissue engineering.
Professor Daniell is the founding Chair of the ANZ Corneal Society and Medical Director of the Lions Eye Bank. Previously he was Head of Ophthalmology at the Royal Melbourne Hospital (2003-2011).
He was President of RANZCO from 2017 to 2018 and served on the RANZCO board for 12 years, with roles including Vice President and Treasurer. He was a director and member of the executive of the Council of Presidents of Medical Colleges for four years, and a trustee on the International Council of Ophthalmology. He was Chair of the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia from 2005 to 2011 and President of the World Ophthalmology Congress in 2022.
He is an honorary Professor at Harbin University in China and visits LV Prasad in Hyderabad.
He is the founder of the Keratoconus International Consortium.
Professor Daniell has achieved over $40M in competitive grant funding from MRFF, AISRF, ORIA, NHMRC and University of Melbourne interdisciplinary grants as well Victorian Medical Research Accelerator Fund.
Key research questions
- Can we develop a tissue-engineered cornea?
- Can we use stem cells to grow a cornea?
- Can we find a medical treatment for Fuchs Endothelial dystrophy?
- What is the cellular and molecular basis of corneal scarring?
- How can we improve the diagnosis of microbial keratitis?
- What are the ethical Issues in transnational eye banking?
Current projects
Selected publications
My team
Key collaborators
Funding and support
Current projects
Development of a tissue engineered cornea
- Produce a novel hydrogel as a scaffold for cell growth and transfer into the eye
- Search for alternate cell sources for corneal transplants including use of iPSC transformed to corneal endothelial cells
- Produce a novel material to assist in DMEK surgery (Hygelix)
Microbial keratitis: improving the efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis
Point-of-care platform for diagnosing vision-threatening infections
Investigating the cellular basis of corneal graft rejection
- Preclinical models for drug validation in EB-induced corneal blindness
- Targeting fibroblast growth factor and receptor to restore vision in Fuchs’ Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy
Analysis of ethical Issues in Transnational Eye Banking
Selected publications
“Biodegradable and biocompatible poly(ethylene glycol)-based hydrogel films for the regeneration of corneal endothelium” (Ozelik, Brown, Blencowe, Ladewig , Stevens, Scheerlink, Abberton, Daniell M, Qiao G; Adv Healthc Mater. 2014 Sep;3(9):1496-507. DOI: 1002/adhm.201400045
Ultrathin chitosan-poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogel films for corneal tissue engineering. Ozcelik B, Brown KD, Blencowe A, Daniell M, Stevens GW, Qiao G. Acta Biomater. 2013 May;9(5):6594-605. DOI: 1016/j.actbio.2013.01.020
Current status and future prospects for cultured limbal tissue transplants in Australia and New Zealand Harkin DG, Apel AJ, Di Girolamo N, Watson S, Brown K, Daniell MD, McGhee JJ, McGhee CN. Clin Experiment Ophthalmol. 2013 Apr;41(3):272-81. DOI: 1111/j.1442-9071.2012.02877.x
“Plasma polymer coated contact lens for cultured corneal epithelium cell transfer for limbal stem cell deficiency”. (Brown, Low, Mariappan, Abberton, Short, Zhang, Maddileti, Sangwan, Steele, Daniell; Tissue Engineering Part A 2014 Feb;20(3-4):646-55.) DOI: 1089/ten.TEA.2013.0089
“Acrylic Acid Surface-Modified Contact Lens for the Culture of Limbal Stem Cells” (Zhang, Brown, Lowe, Lui, Steele, Abberton, Daniell; Tissue engineering. Part A 2014 Jun;20(11-12):1593-602. DOI: 1089/ten.TEA.2013.0320
See more publications
My team
-
- Mariam Mustafa – PhD student, University of Melbourne
Anne Lowinger – Visiting research fellow
- Nicole Nga – PhD student, University of Melbourne
Haiming Li – PhD student, University of Melbourne
Key collaborators
- Dr Karl Brown – Research fellow
- Dr Gink Yang – Research Fellow
- Dr Elsie Chan – Research Fellow
- Dr Elaine Chong – Senior Research Fellow
- Professor Greg Dusting – Research fellow
- Professor Greg Qiao
- Dr Reza Sanaei
- Professor Stephanie Watson
- Professor Gordon Wallace
- Professor Damian Harkin
Funding and support
Thank you to the following organisations for their support:
- NHMRC
- MRFF
- Victorian Government
- DHB Foundation
- ORIA
- Keratoconus Australia
- Impact Perpetual Philanthropic
- Angior Family Foundation
- Lions Eye Bank
- Victorian Lions Federation
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