MEC_ImpactReport_2025_with updated figures, no guidelines, LR - Flipbook - Page 21
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In 2025, over
In 2025, £72k
£115k of grants
of funding
supported
supported
staff welfare
research
and recognition
dissemination
Meet our grant holders: the impact
of career development awards
a fundamental step,” he said.
“It enabled me to prepare
research material, write
larger grant applications, and
establish collaborations with
colleagues at the UCL Institute
of Ophthalmology.”
Since receiving the CDA, Dr
Young has secured additional
support, including a PhD
studentship and a Springboard
Dr Rodrigo Young
award from the charity, as
Dr Rodrigo Young is a principal
anophthalmia, where one or
investigator at the UCL
both eyes are abnormally small
Institute of Ophthalmology,
or absent.
whose research is reshaping
In 2020, Dr Young received
our understanding of
a career development award
developmental eye
(CDA) from Moorfields Eye
mechanisms. His work on “eye
Charity, which provided vital
growth compensation” – a
support at a pivotal moment
newly identified mechanism in
in his career.
zebrafish – is paving the way
More than just funding, the
for potential breakthroughs
CDA gave Dr Young time to
in treating conditions such
focus on the next stage of his
as microphthalmia and
career. “The award was
My grant from Moorfields Eye Charity enabled me to
test proof-of-concept ideas that form the foundation of my
current research. I studied the genomes of anophthalmic and
microphthalmic patients with no prior molecular diagnosis
and identified new genes linked to these conditions.
Dr Rodrigo Young
well as a Medical Research
Council grant. Today, he leads
a growing research team and
continues to expand his work.
