The Translational Vision Research Laboratory was established in 1999 as a single room with very little basic equipment. The laboratory now reaches 260 square metres in size with direct access to the clinical teaching laboratory, seminar rooms and support facilities. The laboratory is fully equipped for molecular and cellular biology studies, genetics research, organotypic and cell culture, and tissue engineering. Two large rounds of equipment funding in 2000 and 2005, generous commercial sponsorship, and consistent success in competitive research grant funding in the department averaging close to $1M per annum (25% of that specifically for translational vision research) has seen the laboratory develop into a world class eye research facility. With a further 100 square metres of new space becoming available in April 2006, and the installation of a Confocal Laser Scanning Research Microscope in 2009, the Translational Vision Research Laboratory has become New Zealand's premiere vision research centre.
School of Medicine
Translational Vision Research in the Department of Ophthalmology
Laboratories
The two Translational Vision Research laboratories have been named the Paton and MacKenzie Suites after pioneering ophthalmologists R. Townley Paton (founder of the first Eye Bank) and William MacKenzie.
Above: The MacKenzie Suite
