The cornea is the clear part of  your eye, right above your iris (the part that gives your eye colour). Being at the very front of your eye, this part is responsible for 3/4 of your eyes focusing power! If infected or inflamed (things go wrong), the cornea goes cloudy. This is bad (!), and if left untreated could mean losing vision!
Until recently, people thought that the cornea had no cells. It is a very small tough and compact piece of tissue. But white blood cells have been found within the cornea, and these cells help fight any bacteria or nasty things that might infect your eye (after an injury, like a scratch). I’m looking at how these cells talk to each other , and how they interact with nerves that sense an injury . Both of these help these immune cells “police” your cornea!

I’m currently half way through my studies to achieve a PhD in Medicine. I organise my schedule and experiments every day. So a typical day would mean coming in and planning experiments, trying to multitask to get as much done as possible. Most of my time is either in front of a microscope taking pictures, or in from of a computer analysing the results.

All the hard work is in line with the hope that my results, my contribution, and collaborations with other scientists will push our understanding of the eye towards curing blindness .

Knowledge is key when it comes to science. You need to collaborate and speak to others, some more experienced and smarter than you. A very good way of doing this is at an international conference. There’s a big one coming up early next year, and it’d mean a lot if I was able to attend.