Contact information
BIOGRAPHY
- Royal College of Ophthalmologists/ Fight for Sight award (2018)
- Fellowship of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (2016)
- Doctor of Philosophy, University of Oxford (2016)
- Royal Society of Medicine/ Wesleyan trainee of the year (2014)
- Oxford Ophthalmological congress Founder's cup (2014)
- Dermot Pierse prize in Ophthalmology, Royal Society of Medicine (2014)
- Wellcome Trust clinical research training fellowship (2010)
- Harcourt medal (highest mark MRCOphth part 3), Royal College of Ophthalmologists (2008)
- Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (2006)
- Proxime Accessit (joint 2nd place final BM examination), University of Oxford (2003)
- BMBCh, University of Oxford (2003)
- BA (Neuroscience), 1st class, University of Cambridge (2000)
- College Prize & Rolleston scholarship, St John's College, University of Cambridge (1998,1999, 2000)
In the media
- SCIENCE-ISH podcast HTTPS://AUDIOBOOM.COM/POSTS/7117309-BLINDNESS
- BBC Radio Interview by 'The Naked Scientists
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/
interviews/gene-therapy-lets-blind-mice-see - https://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/
articles/10.1038/nj7502-651a - https://www.rsm.ac.uk/about-us/media-information/2014-media-releases/rsm-wesleyan-young-trainee-of-the-year-award-winner-announced.aspx
Samantha de Silva
MA (Cantab) BMBCh MRCP FRCOphth DPhil
Consultant Ophthalmologist
Samantha is a Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon specialising in medical retina disorders at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. After graduating from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, she completed ophthalmology training in the Oxford deanery. This was followed by two prestigious sub-specialist fellowships in medical retina, in Oxford and at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London.
Samantha was awarded a Wellcome Trust fellowship to undertake doctoral research in the Nuffield laboratory of Ophthalmology under the mentorship of Professors Robert MacLaren and Mark Hankins, to investigate optogenetic strategies to restore vision in end-stage inherited retinal degenerations. This led to high impact publications including a first author publication in PNAS and several awards. Her research interests also include understanding the genetic background and disease variability in inherited retinal disorders.
Samantha has given numerous invited lectures, and sits on the Women in Vision UK committee, promoting the role of women in ophthalmology and visual sciences, and was also profiled in an article on gene therapy careers in Nature.
TEAM MEMBERS
- Ahmed Shalaby, DPhil student
- Saoud Al-Khuzaei, DPhil student
Collaborators
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Robert MacLaren
Professor of Ophthalmology
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Mark Hankins
Professor of Visual Neuroscience
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Peter Charbel Issa
Consultant Ophthalmologist
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Susan Downes
Professor of Ophthalmology
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Kanmin Xue
Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow
Research groups
Key publications
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Journal article
De Silva SR. et al, (2020), Prog Retin Eye Res
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Journal article
De Silva SR. et al, (2017), Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114, 11211 - 11216
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Journal article
de Silva SR. et al, (2016), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
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Journal article
de Silva SR. et al, (2015), 203 - 228
Recent publications
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Journal article
Gallo B. et al, (2021), Br J Ophthalmol
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Journal article
Evans JR. et al, (2020), Br J Ophthalmol, 104, 1345 - 1349
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Journal article
De Silva SR. et al, (2020), Prog Retin Eye Res
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Repair of Retinal Degeneration Following Ex Vivo Minicircle DNA Gene Therapy and Transplantation of Corrected Photoreceptor Progenitors
Conference paper
Barnea A. et al, (2020), MOLECULAR THERAPY, 28, 528 - 528
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Journal article
Barnea-Cramer AO. et al, (2020), Mol Ther, 28, 830 - 844