Andrew Metha

Biography

Andrew Metha is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences at the University of Melbourne, where he has taught at all levels in the Bachelor and now new Postgraduate Optometry Degree courses (Doctor of Optometry, OD; see http://graduate.science.unimelb.edu.au/programs/optometry.php). His first degree was a Bachelor of Science (Physics and Mathematics) from Monash University, before undertaking his Optometry undergraduate degree from the University of Melbourne where he also obtained his PhD. Andrew currently holds a therapeutically endorsed optometry registration in Australia, and maintains clinical practice though the University optometry training clinics. He is an eclectic vision scientist, first gaining expertise in psychophysical methods of understanding visual processes during his PhD, then branching into single and multi-cell electrophysiological recordings in the visual cortex to investigate adaptation and brain plasticity, and most recently uses adaptive optics to directly image single cells and other microstructure in living eyes. He joined the University of Melbourne department in 2000 after serving postdoctoral positions in Montreal (McGill Vision Research Unit), the University of Rochester's Centre for Visual Science and the Psychobiology Laboratory in Canberra's Australian National University. With this diverse range of exposure and experience, Andrew brings a multi-disciplinary approach to bear on the question of how we see. Andrew's laboratories (in the Alice Hoy Building and the Melbourne Brain Centre) use adaptive optics technologies to image cellular structure and function in the living retina. The broad research aims are to understand the fundamental workings of the living retina on the microscopic scale. Of particular interest is how this becomes compromised in sight-debilitating diseases such as diabetes and glaucoma, and whether we can see early evidence in the eye for other neurological/brain conditions. The labs combine a range of investigative tools including high-resolution non-invasive imaging, psychophysics, computational modeling and electrophysiology. Current research projects make use of high speed, multi-spectral adaptive optics to visualize the smallest neurons, glial cells and blood vessels in living eyes of humans and animals. Under investigations are: the dynamics of flow and oxygen exchange at the level of individual red blood cells; the cascade of optical and physiological events that occur when a photoreceptor interacts with light; and ways to advance retinal imaging in general, exploiting the eye as a window to the brain. View Andrew's laboratory web page at: http://www.optometry.unimelb.edu.au/research/methaLab.html

Research Interest

Application of modern optical technology to better understand the eye, image the retina and improve sight (Imaging) Colour Vision of humans and other animals (Imaging, Sensory Information Processing) In-vivo micro-vascular imaging (Capillary, Blood flow regulation, Neurovascular coupling,) Neurophysiological principles governing the ability to 'see' (Neuroscience) Retinal imaging (Imaging, High-resolution) Vision Science (Optics, Colour Vision, Physiology, Sensory Systems)