Researcher Prof Bamini Gopinath

Professor Bamini Gopinath has received grants from Macular Disease Foundation Australia three times since 2012. Let’s take a look at her research projects, conducted through the Centre for Vision Research, Westmead Institute for Medical Research, University of Sydney.

2012 Blackmores Dr Paul Beaumont Research Fellowship

Project: Targeted actions to identify modifiable nutritional and lifestyle factors for AMD among persons in the Blue Mountains Eye Study and other population studies.

Timeline: $100,000 over two years.

2014 Blackmores Dr Paul Beaumont Research Fellowship

Project: Establishing the dietary and lifestyle risk factor profile of a large cohort of clinic patients presenting with late AMD.

Timeline: $100,000 over two years

2016 NHMRC partnership

Project: Caring for the carer: implementing a comprehensive support service model for family caregivers looking after persons with AMD.

Timeline: $100,000 over three years

The problem to be solved

Professor Bamini Gopinath received two Blackmores Dr Paul Beaumont Research Fellowships to deepen our understanding of the links between lifestyle factors and macular disease. NHMRC and MDFA funding then supported a third project that aims to improve the wellbeing of people who care for family members living with AMD.

Prof Gopinath’s first fellowship built on Prof Mitchell’s Blue Mountains Eye Study, finding that adherence to smoking and dietary recommendations was poor among older adults with AMD, but uptake of antioxidant supplements increased significantly among those with late AMD over the 10-year study.

The second project provided further insight into the diet of people with the condition.

These studies revealed new foods – such as oranges and dairy – that reduce the risk of AMD, and Prof Gopinath’s globally unique research is now looking at novel antioxidants and their relation to wet AMD.

Prof Gopinath is completing a third study, co-funded by MDFA and the NHMRC, which hopes to enhance the welfare of carers for people with AMD through phone and mail support services.

Prof Gopinath spoke about this ‘Caring for the Carers’ project, in a podcast hosted by our Patron, Ita Buttrose AC OBE.

Posted: July 2021