GENETICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS OF GLAUCOMA & MYOPIA
Professor David Mackey AO,
Professor of Ophthalmology
The Lions Eye Institute,
University of Western Australia
RESEARCHER PROFILE
Filmed in Perth, Western Australia | February 2026
Professor David Mackey, AO is a clinician, scientist and academic. He is Professor of Ophthalmology at UWA and was the Lions Eye Institute’s Managing Director from 2009 until 2018.
A University of Tasmania medical graduate, Professor Mackey completed his ophthalmology training at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital in Melbourne. After an MD thesis on Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy at the University of Melbourne, he completed fellowships in the US and UK in genetic eye diseases.
A renowned international researcher on the genetics of eye disease, Professor Mackey leads the Lions Eye Institute’s Genetics and Epidemiology research group, which pursues multiple projects aimed at understanding how genes and environment interact to influence an individual’s risk of eye disease.
Professor Mackey collaborates with researchers worldwide. He is a lead investigator in the International Glaucoma Genetics Consortium (IGCC) and the Consortium for Refractive Error and Myopia (CREAM). In the 1990s he coordinated an international consortium across eight countries to establish the frequency of Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON) mutations.
In Australia, he initiated the Glaucoma Inheritance Study in Tasmania – creating one of the largest glaucoma biobanks in the world and contributing to the discovery of more than a dozen genes associated with Mendelian genetic eye disease.
The Twins Eye Study in Tasmania and Brisbane, the Norfolk Island Eye Study, the eye component of the WA Pregnancy (Raine) Cohort, Busselton Healthy Aging Study are his other major projects.
Professor Mackey’s original research, over more than 30 years into the genetics of glaucoma and in the fields of optic atrophy and congenital cataract, has received constant professional accolades, attracted ongoing research funding and led to his publication of more than 400 peer-reviewed papers.
In 2019, he was made an Officer (AO) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for “distinguished service to medicine, and to medical education, in the field of ophthalmology, as a clinician-scientist and academic”.
Source: Lions Eye Institute website
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7914-4709
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Investigating the benefits of donor human milk for preterm infants
Together, SAHMRI and Lifeblood are leading a consortium to revolutionise the way human milk, and novel products made from human milk, are used as nutritional and medical interventions to improve health outcomes in vulnerable infants, but with potential application for a diverse range of medical indications.
Currently, babies who are born early preterm – before 32 weeks – are given donor milk when their own mother’s milk is not available or in short supply. Whether donor milk is beneficial for babies born just a few weeks early is unclear, as very little research has been undertaken with these babies.
The GIFT Trial will soon commence as an investigation between SAHMRI, the University of Adelaide, the Red Cross Lifeblood Milk Bank conducted at five sites across three states in Australia.
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Dr Lisa Melton
RESEARCH IN SANFILIPPO
@ SANFILIPPO CHILDREN’S FOUNDATION
SYDNEY, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA -
New treatments for patients with mental illness
Associate Professor Bernadette Fitzgibbon is a neuroscientist with several decades of experience in researching, developing, and translating novel therapies for mental health and chronic pain conditions. This includes the application and optimisation of brain stimulation and psychedelic therapies, overseeing large multi-site intervention trials, both within Australia and abroad. Through her work, she has developed meaningful collaborations with consumers, volunteers, policy makers, and services providers, ensuring that the outcomes of her work contribute towards real-world clinical impact.
