12–17 Jul 2026
University of Graz
Europe/Vienna timezone

Untangling abnormal retinal blood vessels: Integrating computational modelling, image analysis and in vivo imaging

MS84-03
16 Jul 2026, 17:40
20m
01.22 - HS (University of Graz)

01.22 - HS

University of Graz

90
Minisymposium Talk Miscellaneous Mathematical and Computational Ophthalmology

Speaker

Katie Bentley (The Francis Crick Institute and Kings College London)

Description

Abnormal retinal neovascularisation is a hallmark of many retinopathies, including diabetic retinopathy (DR), Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). It is still unclear how the altered conditions in these diseases, drive cells to construct these vessels, which exacerbate disease progression and in some cases sight loss. Current therapies focus on anti-vegf or laser to limit further damage, but complications, risks and a large proportion of poor responders mean greater understanding of the disease mechanism is required to reveal new strategies.

We are developing integrated computational methods to integrate with state-of-the-art retinal imaging modalities in preclinical mouse, patient and post-mortem human eyes to reveal the dynamic mechanisms governing abnormal vessel growth towards identifying new/adapted therapeutic strategies to improve patient outcomes.

I will give an overview of our tools development and insights to date on 1) our 3D image analysis tool to quantify abnormal retinal vessel and cell-scale morphology and signalling patterns and 2) our predictive cell-based mechanistic simulations integrating with imaging at Moorfields Eye Hospital.

Bibliography

@article{prahst2020mouse,
title={Mouse retinal cell behaviour in space and time using light sheet fluorescence microscopy},
author={Prahst, Claudia and Ashrafzadeh, Parham and Mead, Thomas and Figueiredo, Ana and Chang, Karen and Richardson, Douglas and Venkaraman, Lakshmi and Richards, Mark and Russo, Ana Martins and Harrington, Kyle and others},
journal={Elife},
volume={9},
pages={e49779},
year={2020},
publisher={eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd}
}

@article{ubezio2016synchronization,
title={Synchronization of endothelial Dll4-Notch dynamics switch blood vessels from branching to expansion},
author={Ubezio, Benedetta and Blanco, Raquel Agudo and Geudens, Ilse and Stanchi, Fabio and Mathivet, Thomas and Jones, Martin L and Ragab, Anan and Bentley, Katie and Gerhardt, Holger},
journal={Elife},
volume={5},
pages={e12167},
year={2016},
publisher={eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd}
}

@article{bentley2014role,
title={The role of differential VE-cadherin dynamics in cell rearrangement during angiogenesis},
author={Bentley, Katie and Franco, Claudio Areias and Philippides, Andrew and Blanco, Raquel and Dierkes, Martina and Gebala, V{\'e}ronique and Stanchi, Fabio and Jones, Martin and Aspalter, Irene M and Cagna, Guiseppe and others},
journal={Nature cell biology},
volume={16},
number={4},
pages={309--321},
year={2014},
publisher={Nature Publishing Group UK London}
}

Author

Katie Bentley (The Francis Crick Institute and Kings College London)

Co-authors

Alexandru Toma (The Francis Crick Institute, London) Markus Koerbel (The Francis Crick Institute, London and EMBL Heidelberg) Zuzanna Dzieniak (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) Andreia Pena (Catolica Biomedical Research Centre, Lisbon) Markus Fruttiger (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) Marinko Sarunic (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) Cathy Egan (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) Senth Selvam (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) Claudio Franco (Catolica Biomedical Research Centre, Lisbon) Colin Chu (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital)

Presentation materials

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