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International Women’s Day: Lauren Ayton

Today, for International Women’s Day, we celebrate the extraordinary achievements of Beaconhills College alumnus, Associate Professor Lauren Ayton (Class of 2000).

A/Prof Ayton describes her proudest achievement as being a mum to five year old Charlie and 18 month old Amelie. But she has a few other impressive accomplishments.

From 2010 to 2017, she was Clinical Team Leader of the Bionic Vision Australia consortium, which developed and tested the world-first bionic eye. From there she moved to the USA until 2019 as Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at Bionic Eye Technologies.

A/Prof Ayton returned to Melbourne 2019 where she now heads her own research team at the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Eye Research Australia.

“My research focuses on people with inherited retinal disease, which is the leading cause of blindness in working aged adults,” A/Prof Ayton said. “We are working on a number of projects, from learning more about the clinical presentations of these conditions, to the genetics behind the diseases and people’s experiences of vision loss.”

She is involved in a number of clinical trials, including gene therapy for age-related macular degeneration and new drugs for inherited retinal diseases.

Winner of numerous awards, A/Prof Ayton is a passionate science communicator, hosting 3RRR radio’s Einstein-A-Go-Go science show.