Activity from our Adaptive Optics facility
Our facility provides advanced equipment and specialised expertise in high-resolution human retinal imaging at the cellular level.
The UCL Institute of Ophthalmology's Adaptive Optics Facility holds advanced instruments tailored to meet the diverse needs of UCL researchers and external partners.
Here are a selection of images taken in recent years with our equipment. Click on each image for a description.
Confocal and split detection modalities merged into a single picture.
From left to right: confocal, split detection and dark field imaging showing cone outer segments, cone inner segments and retinal pigment epithelium cells.
Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA) RPE65 showing both cone and rod photoreceptors.
Cone and rod photoreceptors in an unaffected retina
Non-waveguiding (orange) and waveguiding (cyan) photoreceptor outer segments in LCA-RPE65.
Eye motion (saccade) during image sequence acquisition showcasing the slow (vertical) scanner of the AOSLO.
Cone and rod photoreceptors in an unaffected retina.
Foveal cones in an unaffected retina.
Small retinal blood vessel and capillaries in an unaffected eye.
Quadrant-detection images of (mostly) cone photoreceptors in LCA-RPE65.
"The Adaptive Optics (AO) Facility at the Institute of Ophthalmology now comprises three Adaptive Optics Scanning Light Ophthalmoscopes and I have been the Technical Lead of the very first one established more than 10 years ago as a result of the Michaelides (UCL) - Dubra (Stanford) collaboration. My work is integrated into a wider interdisciplinary clinical and research team dedicated to improving the understanding of inherited retinal diseases (IRDs). Our small team employs AO Scanning Light Ophthalmoscopy to examine the structure and function of cone and rod photoreceptors in the outer retina of the human living eye. These cells are about 50 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. We are in the unique position to be able to study these cells in conditions that directly affect them providing invaluable understanding of natural history and affording the detection of early and slow changes, previously impossible."
- Dr Kalitzeos