Retinal degeneration (whether age related or congenital) leads to irreversible blindness and there is a growing proportion of patients young and old who are affected by this condition and currently have no means of visual restoration. Stem cell therapy has come into prominence in the last few years as a potential therapeutic option in these patients but remains fraught with issues of safety and efficacy. Shweta moved to the UK to pursue a PhD and post-doctoral fellowship in retinal stem cell biology in 2005 after completing her medical training in India. She worked at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital in London until 2009 and demonstrated for the first time that stem cells derived from the adult mammalian retina had the potential to restore retinal function in vivo in models of retinal ganglion cell death. Since 2010, she has been in training as an ophthalmic surgeon at the Singapore National Eye Centre while pursuing her career as a clinician scientist alongside. Her lab at the Singapore Eye Research Institute is currently involved in identifying novel retinal stem cell markers and retinal regenerative check points that could be used to develop novel therapeutic strategies for retinal regeneration in vivo.

Retinal stem cell biology with emphasis on: Identifying evolutionary check points in mammalian retinal repair which may be used as potential therapeutic drug targets to stimulate retinal regeneration in vivo, Identifying new autologous sources of retinal stem cells, Developing GCP compliant xenogen free protocols for differentiation of stem cells into functional retinal cells in vitro