GENETICS OF THE CHOROID AND IMPACT ON EYE HEALTH
Dr Samantha Lee,
Senior Research Fellow
Lions Eye Institute &
The University of Western Australia,
Perth, Western Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Perth, Australia | September 2025
Dr Samantha Lee is a Senior Research Fellow at Lions Eye Institute and the University of Western Australia. Dr Lee obtained her PhD in 2017 and the Queensland University of Technology and has since been working on the genetics and environmental causes of various eye diseases, with a focus on glaucoma and myopia. She has published 57 full-length scientific papers and her work has been cited over 1,000 times. She serves on the Editorial Board for the journal BMC Ophthalmology and Scientific Reports, and on the Research Advisory Committee for the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia.
Dr Lee’s research is being supported by the Western Australia Future Health Research and Innovation Fund (2024–27), Medical Research Future Fund (2025–27), Perth Eye Foundation (2024), and the Lions Eye Institute Strategic Funding (2024).
Source: Supplied
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Behavioural science in cancer screening, control and communication
Dr Dodd has an established international reputation as a behavioural scientist in cancer control and communication. Since completing her PhD in 2016, Dr Dodd has been awarded a three-year University of Sydney Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2018-2021) and a three-year Research Fellowship at The Daffodil Centre (current). Dr Dodd is the co-chair of the ‘Strengthening and optimising approaches to cancer prevention, screening, and early detection’ hub at The Daffodil Centre (with more than 130 staff and students).
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Relationship between mental illness and mental wellbeing
Since 2015, Dr Matthew Iasiello has been working on the development and dissemination of mental wellbeing interventions across the Australian community at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). His PhD research was designed specifically to strengthen the translational work conducted by SAHMRI, and to solve problems that represented gaps in the literature that were arising when delivering mental wellbeing interventions into the community. The impact and relevance of Dr Iasiello’s work has been demonstrated with invited presentations at international academic conferences, and multiple media stories with significant online engagements.
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Exercise therapy for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease
Dr Shelley Keating is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Exercise Physiology and Accredited Exercise Physiologist from the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland. With a strong grounding in exercise metabolism and body composition, Dr Keating’s research centres on the utility of exercise as a therapy for obesity and related cardiometabolic conditions, notably metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
