Towards understanding retinal mechanisms through cellular-scale fluorescence lifetime ophthalmoscopy
Jennifer Hunter, MSc, PhD
Associate Professor, School of Optometry and Vision Science. University of Waterloo, (Canada)
In vivo cellular-scale imaging of retinal structure and function is needed to identify and characterize biomarkers of early retinal changes with age and in disease. With the aid of adaptive optics, retinal cellular mosaics in the living eye can be observed. Fluorescence lifetime imaging can provide information about cellular function and fluorophore composition. Combining adaptive optics with fluorescence lifetime ophthalmoscopy has allowed investigation into two areas of research: (a) to enhance two-photon excited fluorescence imaging capabilities for living animal eyes and (b) develop measures of biomarkers for health and disease in human outer retina.

Dr. Hunter joined the School of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of Waterloo in August 2022 as a tenured Associate Professor. Previously, she was faculty at the University of Rochester for 11 years. She is an active member of the ANSI Z136 Safe Use of Lasers standards committee and the Laser Bioeffects & Medical Surveillance subcommittee (TSC-1). Dr. Hunter is a Fellow of Optica (formerly OSA). She has ~43 publications in peer-reviewed journals with over 2200 citations.