Professor Kathryn Burdon at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research studies the genetic factors involved in eye diseases that cause loss of vision. Genes are known to play a role in some of the most common eye diseases – like glaucoma, cataracts and diabetic retinopathy. This genetic link is particularly strong in diseases that affect children and young adults, like childhood cataracts and keratoconus, a disease of the cornea at the front of the eye. In diseases that affect older people, the causes tend to be a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors.