About
Professor Peter van Wijngaarden
CERA Deputy Director, Head of Ophthalmic Neuroscience
Professor Peter van Wijngaarden is an ophthalmologist and medical scientist with research interests in diabetic retinopathy, Alzheimer’s disease and retinal imaging biomarker discovery. He has research experience in retinal vascular biology and central nervous system regeneration.
Professor Peter van Wijngaarden
CERA Deputy Director, Head of Ophthalmic Neuroscience
MBBS(Hons), PhD, FRANZCO
Professor Peter van Wijngaarden is Deputy Director of the Centre for Eye Research Australia and Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Melbourne.
He is a founding steering committee member and clinical director of KeepSight – a national program for diabetic retinopathy screening that seeks to reach every Australian with diabetes to prevent avoidable blindness.
Prof van Wijngaarden is a Director of the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia and a member of the Research and Medical Committees of the Macular Disease Foundation of Australia.
He is a member of the Australian Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Workforce Program Committee and the Futures of Ophthalmology Taskforce of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.
Key research questions
- Can hyperspectral retinal imaging be used to detect people who are at risk of Alzheimer’s disease before the onset of dementia?
- What are the earliest features of Alzheimer’s disease that can be detected with retinal imaging and how long before the onset of dementia are they apparent?
- Can hyperspectral retinal imaging be used to monitor disease progression and treatment responses in Alzheimer’s disease?
- Can hyperspectral retinal imaging be used to identify novel features of eye and brain diseases, including predictors of progression?
Current projects
Selected publications
My team
Key collaborators
Funding and support
Current projects
Retinal imaging in Alzheimer’s disease
- Diagnostic support
- Screening
- Disease and treatment monitoring
Retinal imaging in eye diseases
- Diabetic retinopathy & retinal vascular diseases
- Age-related macular degeneration
- Glaucoma
- Inherited retinal diseases
Selected publications
Xavier Hadoux, Flora Hui, Colin Masters, Alice Pébay, Sophie Chevalier, Jason Ha, Samantha Loi, Christopher J. Fowler, Christopher Rowe, Victor L.Villemagne, Edward N. Taylor, Christopher Fluke, Jean-Paul Soucy, Frédéric Lesage, Jean-Philippe Sylvestre, Pedro Rosa-Neto, Sulantha Mathotaarachchi,Serge Gauthier, Ziad S. Nasreddine, Jean Daniel Arbour, Marc-André Rhéaume, Sylvain Beaulieu, Mohamed Dirani, Robert Williamson, Jonathan G. Crowston, Peter van Wijngaarden*. Non-invasive, in vivo Hyperspectral Imaging identifies a Retinal Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease. Nature Communications. 2019, 17 September, 10:4227. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12242-1.
Björn Neumann, Roey Baror, Chao Zhao, Michael Segel, Sabine Dietmann, Khalil S. Rawji, Sarah Foerster, Crystal R. McClain, Kevin Chalut, Peter van Wijngaarden* and Robin J.M. Franklin*. Metformin Restores CNS Remyelination Capacity by Rejuvenating Aged Stem Cells. Cell Stem Cell. 2019 Oct 3;25(4):473-485.e8. DOI: 10.1016/j.stem.2019.08.015
Peter van Wijngaarden, Xavier Hadoux, Mostafa Alwan, Stuart Keel, Mohamed Dirani, M. Emerging ocular biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. Clinical Experimental Ophthalmology. 2017 Jan;45(1):54-61. DOI: 10.1111/ceo.12872
Veronique E. Miron, Amanda Boyd, Jing-Wei Zhao, Tracy J. Yuen, Julia M. Ruckh, Peter van Wijngaarden, Jennifer L. Shadrach, Amy J. Wagers, Anna Williams, Robin J.M. Franklin, Charles French-Constant. M1 to M2 polarization switch in microglia/ macrophages drives oligodendrocyte differentiation during CNS remyelination. Nature Neuroscience. 2013; 16:1211-8. DOI: 10.1038/nn.3469
Peter van Wijngaarden and Robin J.M. Franklin. Ageing stem and progenitor cells: implications for rejuvenation of the central nervous system. Development. 2013; 140:2562-75. (IF: 5.76; #4/43; Q1). DOI: 10.1242/dev.092262
Julia M. Ruckh, Jing-Wei Zhao, Jennifer L. Shadrach JL, Peter van Wijngaarden, Tata Nageswara Rao, Amy J. Wagers, Robin J. M. Franklin. Rejuvenation of regeneration in the aging central nervous system. Cell Stem Cell. 2012; 10:96-103. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2011.11.019
See more publications
My team
- Dr Xavier Hadoux – Senior Post-doctoral research fellow
- Mr Maxime Jannaud – Research fellow
- Dr Francis Labrecque – Post-doctoral research fellow
- Ms Darvy Dang – Clinical Research Assistant
- Mr Roshan Karri – Student
- Mr Yimin Liu – Student
- Dr Philip Rothschild – Student
- Mr Omar Salehi –Student
Key collaborators
- Dr Zhichao Wu – Head of Clinical Biomarkers Research, CERA
- A/Professors Yen Ying Lim, Matthew Pase and Nawaf Yassi – The Healthy Brain Project, Melbourne.
- Dr Christopher Fowler, Professor Colin Masters and the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study of Ageing, Melbourne.
- Professors Ingeborg Stalmaans, Lieve Moons and Dr Lies De Groef, KU Leuven, Belgium.
Funding and support
Thank you to the following organisations for their support:
- Yulgilbar Alzheimer’s Research Program
- H&L Hecht Trust
- Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation Diagnostics Accelerator
- National Foundation of Medical Research and Innovation
- Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation Eldon and Anne Foote Donor Advised Grant
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