Glaucoma UK is delighted to announce the recipient of their first ever Pitts Crick Fellowship.
This Fellowship was an important part of the charity’s 50th anniversary celebration throughout 2024. Its aim was to honour the legacy of the founder Ronald Pitts Crick and invest in a promising glaucoma researcher who can help with the charity’s mission to prevent glaucoma sight loss.
Glaucoma UK has awarded the Fellowship to Dr Giovanni Montesano, an ophthalmologist based at Moorfields Eye Hospital. The project is titled 'Digital twins in glaucoma: advanced modelling for personalised medicine', and the grant is worth just over £420,000 over three years.
Dr Giovanni Montesano.
Dr Giovanni Montesano commented, “This ambitious project will aim to develop ‘digital twins’ for glaucoma, accurate digital replicas of real patients. The aim is to bring us one step closer to real personalised medicine. For example, a digital twin could be used to help patients, and their clinicians, answer some 'What-if' questions, such as 'What might happen if I have one treatment compared to another?' Developing a comprehensive framework for digital twins will require a multidisciplinary effort, merging expertise from various fields, including biology, genetics, medical imaging, electronic health records, and artificial intelligence.
“It is a great honour to be awarded this fellowship and to carry on Dr Pitts Crick’s legacy in understanding the mechanisms of glaucoma. For me, this is a unique opportunity to pioneer an innovative approach to advance glaucoma research, benefit patients, and enhance the impact of Glaucoma UK’s work. I am deeply grateful to Glaucoma UK’s members and supporters for their generosity and for making this project possible.”
Miss Winnie Nolan, consultant ophthalmologist and chair of the award panel, observed, “We received many strong applications for this Fellowship award, but Giovanni’s stood out. We are excited about the potential of this project to improve outcomes for people with glaucoma. In future, digital twins may help doctors like me to support patients in managing their glaucoma and making more informed decisions about treatment options. Giovanni will be an outstanding ambassador for Glaucoma UK, and we look forward to working with him on this transformative research, and beyond.”
Joanna Hodgkinson, Glaucoma UK’s Head of Research, says: “We are so incredibly grateful to everyone who donated to our 50th anniversary appeal and has helped to establish this Fellowship. We hope Dr Ronald Pitts Crick would be proud of our anniversary celebrations, and the extraordinary contributions of our community."
If you would like to help us fund more sight-saving research, visit www.glaucoma.uk/donate or phone 01233 648 170.
