Mariya Moosajee

Professor Mariya Moosajee works in UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and the Francis Crick Institute in London. In the laboratory, her team’s focus is to increase understanding of the molecular basis of ocular maldevelopment and inherited retinal dystrophies, using disease models such as human induced- pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal organoids, RPE, and corneal limbal epithelial stem cells. This permits the identification of potential therapeutic targets for development of treatment strategies, including small molecule drugs and non-viral gene therapy, which are being translated back to the patients in early phase clinical trials. Professor Moosajee obtained first class honours for her BSc in biochemistry and molecular genetics in 2000, followed by her MBBS in 2003 from Imperial College London. She was also awarded her PhD in Molecular Ophthalmology in 2009 from Imperial College London. Mariya completed her Ophthalmology Specialist Training in the London Deanery. In 2011, she was awarded an NIHR Academic Clinical Lectureship at the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, during which she established her own research group in the department of Ocular Biology and Therapeutics. In 2015, she became a Fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists and undertook her clinical fellowship at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in Paediatric Ophthalmology and Adult Retinal Genetics at Moorfields Eye Hospital.