Biography:
Beth was awarded her PhD in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Nottingham. She subsequently joined the EPSRC IRC Proteus project and Translational Healthcare Technologies group at the University of Edinburgh, where she led infection model development and the validation of optical SmartProbes and imaging devices for clinical translation in pulmonology. In 2017 Beth started investigating how such technologies could be adapted for point-of-care diagnosis of infection, considering technological, user and health system requirements in low-resource settings, with a particular focus on microbial keratitis (corneal ulcer). Beth concurrently undertook an MSc in Global Health and public policy at the University of Edinburgh to augment these endeavours, and she has built extensive networks across healthcare settings in India with whom she collaborates to co-design and evaluate these technologies, particularly in the field of microbial keratitis. Beth started her UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship in 2022 to develop pathways to diagnose, treat and reduce the burden of microbial keratitis in India, with project partner Aravind Eye Care System. The research approach is two-fold, exploring both bottom-up (molecular characterisation of the disease pathways, modelling microbial keratitis) and top-down (health-system and patient care pathway mapping) methodologies to drive fundamental insight into the disease. This is enabling development of appropriate diagnostic and treatment tools and strategies within the Indian context.

Research:
A corneal ulcer, also called microbial keratitis (MK), is an infection -usually caused by bacteria or fungi (pathogens)- on the transparent window on the front of the eye. MK is an ocular emergency and if improperly treated, it can quickly lead to visual impairment, require a corneal transplant or result in eye loss. In the UK, most cases (90%) are caused by bacteria, and contact lens wear is the biggest risk factor. In tropical climates, like India, cases are 50:50 bacterial and fungal. Around the world, 60% of MK patients are left with moderate or worse visual impairment, and corneal transplant is frequently required. These outcomes are so terrible because of limitations in healthcare access, poor diagnostic performance and limited treatment options.

We are working towards improving outcomes for this disease in close partnership with the Aravind Eye Care System (India), and the Princess Alexander Eye Pavilion (Edinburgh). Our current research activity includes:

1. Understanding how and why patients engage with the care pathway. What opportunities/barriers are there for making changes and implementing new diagnostics?
2. Understand the inflammatory response to the disease by evaluation of patient samples and developing novel in vitro and ex vivo MK models.
3. Diagnostic development and evaluation, including lateral-flow devices and fluorescence imaging
4. Therapeutic development and evaluation, including antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, and immunomodulation.