ProfessorMatthew Simunovic

Professor Simunovic’s research integrates laboratory discovery, translational surgical innovation and clinical trials in retinal disease. His program focuses on developing and evaluating novel therapeutic strategies for inherited, degenerative and surgical retinal disorders, with particular emphasis on retinal repair and functional restoration.

Gene-Independent Therapeutic Strategies for Retinal Degeneration

Many retinal diseases — including inherited retinal disorders and advanced age-related macular degeneration (AMD) — share a common final pathway of photoreceptor dysfunction and loss. Given the genetic heterogeneity of inherited retinal disease and the complex biology of AMD, Professor Simunovic’s laboratory focuses on gene-independent therapeutic approaches that target shared downstream mechanisms of visual failure.

His group investigates optogenetic strategies to restore light sensitivity to surviving inner retinal neurons using novel viral vectors and high-sensitivity opsins designed to provide physiologically meaningful vision. This work integrates molecular biology, electrophysiology and behavioural assessment in translational models.

In parallel, his laboratory studies retinal progenitor-like cells derived from living human donor surgical explants, characterising their molecular and regenerative properties with the aim of developing biologically grounded approaches to retinal repair.

Retinal Repair Platforms and Surgical Innovation

Professor Simunovic co-developed a novel light-activated bioglue for retinal repair. This platform technology is designed to seal retinal defects without reliance on long-acting vitreous substitutes and has potential applications in:

• Retinal detachment repair
• Macular hole surgery
• Biologic and cell delivery

Current work focuses on optimisation, biocompatibility and regulatory preparation for early-phase human translation.

More broadly, his research program develops surgical innovations that enable safe and reproducible delivery of emerging retinal therapies.

Experimental Vitreoretinal Surgery and Therapeutic Delivery

Emerging retinal treatments require precise and reproducible intraocular delivery techniques. Professor Simunovic’s work has:

• Quantified drug reflux following subretinal injection in humans through investigator-initiated randomised trials
• Defined optimal surgical approaches for gene and biologic therapy delivery
• Characterised structural and functional recovery following therapeutic retinal detachment

This research informs surgical standards for gene therapy, neuroprotective agents and cell-based therapies.

Functional Biomarkers and Advanced Retinal Imaging

Conventional outcome measures such as visual acuity often fail to capture meaningful functional change in retinal disease. Professor Simunovic’s research develops and validates objective functional biomarkers to improve sensitivity to disease progression and therapeutic response.

This includes:

• Rod and cone-mediated sensitivity under scotopic, mesopic and photopic conditions
• Light adaptation as a biomarker of retinal dysfunction
• Structure–function correlations integrating OCT imaging and psychophysical testing

These tools support clinical trial design and translational evaluation.

Clinical Trials and Real-World Evidence

Professor Simunovic leads and contributes to early-phase and investigator-initiated clinical trials in retinal disease, including neuroprotective therapies, surgical innovation and gene therapy delivery strategies.

He is Principal Investigator of the Fight Inherited Retinal Blindness! (FIRB!) Registry, which evaluates real-world outcomes of retinal gene therapy and emerging treatments for inherited retinal disease. He also contributes to national surgical audit initiatives to support quality and benchmarking in vitreoretinal surgery.