Prof Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka starts as Head of Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience

Professor Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka started her role today as the Head of Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience in the School of Biomedical Sciences.

Professor Wilkinson-Berka is a world authority on diabetic retinopathy and oxygen-induced retinopathy.

She previously held a number of leadership roles at Monash University, including Deputy Head of Research, Acting Head of the Department of Immunology and the Associate Dean of Research in the Monash Central Clinical School. She was also a member of the Medical Faculty Senior Executive and the Academic Board.

Professor Wilkinson-Berka's interest in vision-threatening retinal vascular disease led her to establish the Diabetic Retinopathy Laboratory here at the University of Melbourne in the Department of Physiology in 2000.

Her pre-clinical research led to the discovery that the blockage of the hormone angiotensin II reduces retinal vascular disease, and this research contributed to the largest clinical trial in diabetic retinopathy.

Currently, Professor Wilkinson-Berka and her research team are trying to understand the factors that lead to diabetic retinopathy and retinopathy of prematurity in order to develop new treatment targets.

She obtained her PhD in 1992 from the University of Melbourne in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.

Welcome Professor Jennifer Wilkinson-Berka!