Our laboratory is dedicated to developing new therapies for ocular diseases. To this end we focus on using the field of MEMS and NEMS in conjunction with cell-based therapies to develop micro-implants. One of our key projects focuses on designing, fabricating, and testing new extended drug delivery devices to treat chronic retinal disease such as macular degeneration and ocular inflammation. Another facet of our work involves surgical instrumentation innovation and modelling retinal disease using finite element analysis.

As this work is interdisciplinary we have researchers and collaborators from multiple backgrounds including electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, biomedical engineering, biology, pharmacology, and medicine.

We have several projects we are working on including extending drug delivery for macular degeneration and uveitis. Our projects can be divided into 4 categories:

1. We build implantable microdevices using microfabrication techniques and test drug release on the benchtop and in vivo. 

2. We are conducting active research using cell-based systems (encapsulated cells) to deliver therapeutic proteins.

3. We work on surgical instrumentation and use this to help patients.

4. We use finite element analysis to model drug delivery in the eye and evaluate the pathogenesis of disease.

Learn more about this work: 

• Read our work from ARVO

We design and innovate on new surgical instrumentation for patient care in ophthalmology. 
 

Learn more about this work: 

• Read our paper in OSLI Retina
• View our poster, presented at ARVO 2025
• Read our article in the International Journal of Retina and Vitreous