Dr. Pierre Mattar is doing the groundwork needed to develop treatments for vision loss.
"In our research program we’re really interested in the genetics that underpins brain development, eye development, and also disease. What we’re trying to do is understand genes and their functions, that’s our primary objective.
I do strongly believe that for regenerative medicine and therapy development, really understanding the fundamentals of how the body’s formed and how the body works is really crucial.
It’s really fun and exciting and rewarding to see something in our experiments that no-one has ever seen before. And it does happen quite a bit. I’ve had that experience multiple times in my career.
The research community we have here is really special. I think interacting with the colleagues I have here is by far one of the most fun and most rewarding part of the job.
There are a few things that are really tremendous about the University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital for doing research. First, there’s a really intimate connection between the clinical departments at the hospital and fundamental researchers like myself.
That really allows a researcher like myself who has a discovery to translate that into a real clinical treatment that could go to a clinical trial. Ottawa’s very uniquely situated to be able to do that.
I strongly believe that by creating new knowledge and new understanding of how the brain develops and how the eye develops that down the road we’ll be able to take advantage of those insights to develop new therapies."
Learn more about Dr. Mattar's research.
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The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa and supported by The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.
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