DrAlison Reynolds

I am an assistant professor and principle investigator in the School of Veterinary Medicine's Veterinary Biosciences section.

Current Research Work
I work in genetics, pharmacology and drug discovery/development with a constant focus on vision research. I am particularly interested in blindness: both inherited (e.g. retinal degeneration) and acquired (age-related forms of blindness and those occurring as a complication of diabetes) and in learning more about what makes drugs toxic to the eye.
I want to understand how and why these blinding diseases progress and apply that knowledge to drug discovery to prevent and delay blindness.
Together with my team, we are establishing zebrafish models of early-onset inherited retinal degeneration and investigating a number of drugs from a retinal toxicity perspective.

I have expanded my focus to include dry eye disease, carrying out work to evaluate new drugs in research models of dry eye disease and am separately working with veterinary clinicians to understand the process of dry eye disease in dogs.

I am working to produce a survey with charity Fighting Blindness to understand more about Charles Bonnet Syndrome, a side effect of sight loss, where people experience symptoms similar to visual hallucinations.

Previous Research Work.
I have a PhD in Ocular Genetics from Trinity College, where I studied under Professor Pete Humphries. This research involved studying how genetic background influences visual function, our ability to see.
As a postdoc I worked in UCD's Conway Institute with Prof. Breandan Kennedy, where I studied visual function in zebrafish and applied a drug discovery model to uncover a novel family of anti-angiogenic drugs.
As part of an Enterprise Ireland funded commercialisation fund, I developed these novel drugs, including being awarded a number of patents.

Selected Relevant Contributions
I am a board member of the Veterinary Council of Ireland, and deputy chair of both the Veterinary Education and Training Committee and the Veterinary Nursing Committee.
I am a member of the Veterinary School's Research Innovation and Impact Committee, where I encourage and assist students in undergraduate research projects.
In December 2018, I won the School of Veterinary Medicine's annual Excellence in Research Award.