Science Museum: SENsory Astronights

Sleepover at the science museum will create new blindart piece

– Dr Mariya Moosajee, Clinician-Scientist and Consultant Ophthalmologist, will be at the Science Museum overnight on Saturday to host an interactive exhibition for those with disabilities and special education needs (SEN) –

London, England, July 2018 – The SENsory AstroNights event on Saturday night at London’s Science Museum will include the ‘Eye-Scape' exhibition to explain how our eyes form and what happens when it goes wrong. Children will be invited to get involved by modelling their own eyes from clay. These pieces of art will then be made into a larger tactile piece. Dr Mariya Moosajee, along with her research team from the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, will also show visitors how our vision develops with props to touch and feel.

The event, supported by The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), will encourage children and families to understand what happens when problems occur with the development of the eye and what this can mean for people that experience these problems.

Dr Moosajee said, “We are really excited to be at the Science Museum so that we can explain why we are doing the work we do. We are working really hard to discover, diagnose, manage and treat more eye conditions and being able to talk to children and their families about our goals is what makes it all worthwhile. I have combined my interest in art and science to give a visual and tactile aspect to the evening on Saturday”.

On SENsory AstroNights families get to explore the Science Museum after dark at their own pace. The Science Museum has programmed a scientific extravaganza, with lots of opportunities to get immersed in science. Families will choose their own adventure from meeting scientists and researchers to hands on workshops and interactive science shows. Children and families will then sleep over surrounded by the museum’s iconic objects.

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Further information

Dr Mariya Moosajee

Dr Mariya Moosajee is a Consultant Ophthalmologist specialising in Genetic Eye Disease at Moorfields Eye Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. She leads a research group at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and her specialist interest is understanding the molecular basis of eye development and genetic eye disease, using relevant disease models, human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived retinal cells and medical bioinformatics. Through dissecting the molecular and cellular pathways of disease, Dr Moosajee and her team have identified therapeutic targets and developed treatment strategies, including nonsense suppression therapy, which is applicable to a wide range of inherited eye disorders.

UCL Institute of Ophthalmology is one of a number of specialised institutes within UCL focusing on vision research and education. It was named the best place in the world to study ophthalmology by the 2017 Centre for World University Rankings and is one of the leading centres for vision and eye research worldwide. The most recent Research Assessment Exercise confirmed the outstanding quality of research carried out at the Institute, with 70 per cent of investigators ranked world leading or internationally excellent. For further information, please visit www.ucl.ac.uk/ioo

The NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology was established in April 2007 and awarded its third five-year term by the NIHR in April 2017. Alongside the NIHR Moorfields Clinical Research Facility (CRF) for Experimental Medicine, our main purpose is to accelerate the progress of biomedical research from the laboratory into early phase safety trials so that scientific breakthroughs that hold promise for patients can proceed along the clinical testing pathway more quickly. Our BRC is one of 20 Biomedical Research Centres awarded to NHS/university partnerships with an outstanding international reputation for research. As a partnership between Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology we are at the centre of one of the largest ophthalmic research sites in the world. For more information go to: www.brcophthalmology.org

The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR): improving the health and wealth of the nation through research. Established by the Department of Health and Social Care, the NIHR:

• funds high quality research to improve health

• trains and supports health researchers

• provides world-class research facilities

• works with the life sciences industry and charities to benefit all

• involves patients and the public at every step

For further information go to: www.nihr.ac.uk