Professor Andrew Lotery MD, FRCOphth
Professor of Ophthalmology, Director, Clinical Neurosciences Research Group, Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine,Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust,Research Director for Gift of Sight Appeal (www.giftofsight.org.uk)
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Professor Andrew Lotery is Professor of Ophthalmology within Medicine at the University of Southampton. As a clinician scientist his research is driven by interactions with patients. He works from bench to bedside using molecular genetics and cell biology to study common causes of blindness. His laboratory work is complemented with clinical trials undertaken in Southampton Eye Unit. He is the medical retina lead in Southampton Eye Unit.
Why do people go blind and how can we prevent this? Eye clinics are the busiest they’ve ever been
My focus is creating therapies for retinal diseases such as age related macular degeneration (AMD), the commonest cause of blindness in the developed world . My impact is recognised by two NIHR senior investigator awards, grant funding since 2015 of £12 million, including being the first ophthalmologist to be awarded a £4 million Wellcome Trust Collaborative grant for research into artificial intelligence in Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). As an academic founder of Gyroscope Therapeutics in 2019 I led a multicentre UK study identifying dry AMD patients most amenable to gene therapy. In a world first, patients from this study then had gene therapy. I also led the first adequately powered placebo controlled clinical trial for central serous chorioretinopathy (CSR) across 22 UK hospitals. Funded by MRC EME and published in the Lancet in 2020, this study has changed practice worldwide in treating CSR. My markers of esteem include being listed by The Times in their 2010 Top 100 Doctors list. I received the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (RCOphth) Nettleship medal in 2009 for the best research paper published by a British Ophthalmolgist in the previous 4 years. Other awards include the 2012 special award for excellence from the Macular Disease Society; the University Hospital Southampton 2014 Innovation Award and their 2017 Clinical impact via research award. I have served as a clinical expert to National Institute for Heath and Care Excellence (NICE) technology appraisal panels that has resulted in major changes in management of AMD and vitreo-macular traction. I acted as an expert witness for NHS commissioners in a Judicial Review which resulted in the drug bevacizumab being made legal for use in the NHS: potentially saving the NHS £0.5 billion p.a. in AMD drug costs. I serve on the Wellcome Trust Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience Expert Review Group. As Chair of the RCOphth scientific committee I have introduced national policy changes including introducing hydroxychloroquine retinal screening nationally.
Research interests
Andrew is interested in understanding the molecular basis of ophthalmic diseases. His University laboratory identifies genetic determinants of eye disease and studies defined mutations in patient derived induced pluripotent stem cells. New therapeutic approaches are also being explored such as gene therapy and retinal cell transplantation. He also leads a dynamic clinical trials team which has participated in many landmark clinical trials developing new treatments for both common conditions such as age related macular degeneration and also rare conditions such as choroideremia. None of this would be possible without the financial support of the Gift of Sight Appeal.
Qualifications
MB BCh BAO, Medicine, Queen’s University, Belfast (1989)
FRCOphth, Ophthalmology, Royal College of Ophthalmology (1994)
MD, Molecular genetics, Queen’s University, Belfast (1997)
Appointments held
2002 - present Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Southampton
2000 – 2002 Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa, USA
1998 – 2000 Fellow in medical retina and molecular ophthalmology, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, USA
1996 – 1998 Specialist Registrar in Ophthalmology, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast
1995 – 1996 Research Registrar (Ophthalmology and Medical Genetics), Belfast City Hospital
