Dr Helena Lee

Helena is an MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow and Associate Professor in Ophthalmology. Her research focuses on improving the vision of children with albinism and other retinal developmental disorders.

Her research focuses on developing disease-specific therapies which target neuroplasticity to modulate abnormal retinal development. She has been awarded £1.4 million by the Medical Research Council (MRC) for her work on the OLIVIA study, looking at the role of oral levodopa in improving visual development in infants and young children with albinism.

In her role as Clinical Research Facility (CRF) Associate Director for Emerging Therapies, Helena leads the development of our emerging therapies research portfolio, particularly focusing on gene and cell-based therapies.

This fits within the wider remit of the new Southampton Emerging Therapies and Technologies (SETT) Centre, the full scope of which also includes the delivery of innovation in the form of medtech trials and use of healthcare data within a Trusted Research Environment.