language of engineers, mathematicians and scientists. I had worked with computer scientists. I have worked in medical and engineering departments, constructed models with engineers and worked in science labs with cells and proteins. Knowledge of such a vast range of disciplines is quite unique in academia.” There is a flip side to this, as Professor Pierscionek freely admits.
It also means, she believes, that interdisciplinary scientists still do not receive the same recognition that those with a more singular approach to research receive. “My approach is not popular,” she says. “I have not had credit for all my ideas. I’ve also been told I’m before my time and warned to be careful with that but I have always followed my curiosity and where the next experiment leads me. I think if you have expertise in only one area you can be limited and a little exposed when ideas in a given area become obsolete.” While this may be a controversial opinion, it does not faze
Professor Pierscionek and she explains why she has adopted this approach: “I have a lot of techniques under my belt and have learnt that these fit into different areas of scientific research so all that I am really doing is adapting my skill base to different areas and I believe this leads to more relevant results. “I read a lot, and I am very interested in
different areas of learning. For example, I’m interested in how artists see things, the impressionists in particular. A number of them had cataracts towards the end of their lives and they painted through cataracts, which is intriguing. That tells us a lot about what the patient sees. You would be surprised at how much good vision there is in the cloudy medium if you can optimise it. If you can get the right light variables, the right colours and contrast, then you can still make the best of that eye.” Professor Pierscionek certainly keeps busy applying this
visual impairment using new technology in the home environment. Professor Pierscionek is unlikely to stop where she is presently. She
believes there is a great deal of work needed to prevent the onset of cataracts and other visual impairments in people at a much younger age than we have done historically. “We are now facing a complete sea change in how we understand
the eye,” she explains. Previously it was thought that the eyeball grows until the age of 12 and thereafter nothing changes at all, apart from the lens that keeps growing. Becoming short sighted was therefore thought to be determined at a young age. With the advent of electronic games and computers requiring viewing over short distances, people are showing signs of short sightedness in their 20s to 40s, suggesting the eye is actually very adaptive. “People remain in front of computers for eight hours a day and
they require their first pair of glasses in their 20s and 30s. Something is happening with the way the musculature is adapting, which means it is affecting the whole eyeball.” Professor Pierscionek and her team are
“I’m interested in how artists see things, the impressionists in
particular. A number of them had cataracts
towards the end of their lives and they painted
through cataracts, which is intriguing”
approach to a great variety of work. One project that particularly excites her at the moment is one funded by the EC through the Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) programme. The work focuses on how frail and elderly people, some of whom may have visual impairment, live independently. As Professor Pierscionek sees it, this all comes back again to the ageing of the eye and the problems associated with it. Again, the project brings together a variety of disciplines and approaches looking at optimising the home environment for people with impairments, enabling them to stay in the home for longer. “We are building a smart home at Kingston University and I am
working with electronic engineers and computer scientists, as well as with experts in cognition and mental health,” she explains. “I am personally interested in how people with visual impairments manage in the home, because if you change the light and the way the light falls on the walls, it can make a lot of difference. You can make a home far more accessible for somebody with restricted eyesight or cognitive impairment, and we need to look at these ideas more closely.” These two aspects of Professor Pierscionek’s work do, of course,
dovetail nicely together. On the one hand, she is looking to improve people’s sight by optimising the quality of replacement lenses for those with cataracts. Meanwhile, where sight cannot be improved, her work is focused on making the environment better for those with
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currently building mechanical models not only of the lens but also of the whole eyeball and looking at how the lens and muscle action is affecting the eyeball. “What we would like to do is create a system that can allow muscle relaxation with near work. It is early days.” Early days or not, this work seems to
characterise Professor Pierscionek’s approach to her
research. She quickly identifies a
problem and then looks at how to solve that problem from a variety of angles, using as many disciplines as she feels will help the cause. It is a refreshing approach and one that she hopes will improve the quality of people’s lives. But she also believes that while this sort of research has an obvious and positive
impact, a lot more work will be needed in terms of education and involving people in all aspects of their health from an early age. “People need to be more aware of their vision and being able to
help themselves,” she explains. “I would like to see more interventions happening at an earlier stage. I would like to see eye care practitioners being able to advise people about gadgets for training the eyes, for the prevention of myopia and about dietary supplements that can slow down the development of cataracts. “I think that we should be pushing towards research that looks at
the prevention and extension of good quality living,” she continues. “People are living longer and chronic diseases are on the rise so people are living longer with disease. This has a significant impact, and not only in terms of cost to the healthcare system. “In terms of my work, and this is the good news, the lens contains
proteins that were synthesised at different times of life offering a chronological record of changes with age. In the lens we can see changes that occur with the onset of diabetes and possibly even chronic disease. If we can identify the changes in the lens that are indicative of early chronic disease, we may be able to put in preventative measures and retard the process. I would like to see the lens used more as a monitor of ageing.” This systemic approach to disease is fundamental to Professor
Pierscionek’s work. “It is about looking at the human being holistically; the lens is within an eye, and as the eye changes it offers us a unique window into disease. That holistic link is something we should be exploiting.”
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