13 August 2025
Glaucoma UK has announced the recipients of its 2025 research project grants.
Associate Professor Kuang Hu, of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, received a grant of close to £90,000 for an 18-month project that will explore predicting glaucoma progression patterns with artificial intelligence (AI). Hu described the grant as a “tremendous privilege.”
“This research will help pinpoint people at higher risk of vision loss from glaucoma, allowing for closer monitoring and earlier treatment, while also providing reassurance to those at lower risk and making the best use of NHS resources,” he said.
The project will apply an AI tool, SuStaIn, to identify subtypes of glaucoma from optical coherence tomography scans.
Dr Lucy Bosworth and her team at the University of Liverpool were awarded a grant of just under £100,000 for a year-long project that aims to develop a regenerative cell-based implant to restore natural eye drainage in glaucoma.
Bosworth highlighted that the research aims not only to improve drainage but to restore the health of the trabecular meshwork.
“Our hope is that this work will contribute to long-term treatments that protect vision and improve quality of life for people living with glaucoma,” she said.
Dr Colin Chu and his project collaborators from the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology received a close to £50,000 grant for a year-long project that endeavours to characterise the 3D spatial biology of the optic nerve head in glaucoma.
Chu shared that the grant would enable a collaboration where cutting-edge technology is used to study changes in donor eyes.
“We hope it will give us new insights, as we will be able to look in 3D at all the different interacting cells that support the optic nerve and how they alter in disease,” he said.
Winnie Nolan, chair of Glaucoma UK’s clinical advisory panel, highlighted that the three projects awarded grants could have a meaningful effect for people with glaucoma.
“We believe they could have a significant impact on people living with glaucoma, through improved identification of those most at risk of sight loss, better treatment options or gaining knowledge of the causes underlying glaucoma. We wish them luck as they embark on their projects,” she said.
While a PhD studentship, worth up to £120,000 over three years, was also offered by Glaucoma UK this year, the charity did not receive any suitable applications.
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