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
-
Food and fasting periods as medicine to prevent disease
Professor Leonie Heilbronn is based at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), where she leads the Obesity and Metabolism laboratory. Her research is at the interface between basic and clinical science. She is internationally recognised for her work in nutritional modulation in humans and has made major contributions to our current understanding of mechanisms underlying conditions such as insulin resistance, particularly inflammation and lipid metabolism. She has also contributed significantly to current concepts of caloric restriction (CR), intermittent fasting (IF) and time restricted eating (TRE) in humans. She has published more than 110 peer reviewed papers in scientific journals and is an Associate Editor of Obesity, and Obesity Research and Clinical Practice.
-
Using Gut Microbes to Reduce Blood Pressure
Professor Francine Marques is an National Health and Medical Research Council Emerging Leader, Viertel Charitable Foundation, and National Heart Foundation Fellow.
She leads the Hypertension Research Laboratory at Monash University and has published more than 120 peer-reviewed papers in journals such as Nature Reviews Cardiology, Nature Medicine, Nature Cardiovascular Research, and Circulation.
-
Optimising Rural Musculoskeletal Health
Adnan Asger Ali is a Director of Accelerate Physiotherapy and PhD candidate at The University of Sydney, where he is researching implementation strategies for musculoskeletal care pathways in rural Australia as part of the PACE-RURAL project.
A passionate advocate for physiotherapy, Adnan serves as Chair of the Australian Physiotherapy Association’s National Musculoskeletal Committee and sits on the Capital Health Network’s Clinical Council. His commitment to clinical excellence was recognised when he received Physiotherapist of the Year at the 2023 Allied Health Awards.
