Rate My Professor Alice Davidson

Professor Alice Davidson holds the position of Professor of Molecular Genetics at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. She completed her PhD at the University of Manchester between September 2006 and January 2010. Since February 2010, she has been a Fight for Sight Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, progressing in her academic career and recently promoted to Professor effective from 1 October 2024. Her research program centers on identifying the genetic origins and molecular mechanisms underlying inherited corneal diseases. Key areas include Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy (FECD), keratoconus, and posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy (PPCD). She investigates novel genetic variants, such as rare variants in MIR184, and repeat expansions like CTG18.1 in TCF4, employing advanced techniques including optical genome mapping, Mendelian randomization, CRISPR/Cas9 editing, and histopathological analysis to elucidate disease pathogenesis and progression.

Davidson has secured major awards and fellowships, including the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship awarded in 2019, which supports her work on genetic changes in the cornea leading to disease development and potential preventive treatments. She also received a Moorfields Eye Charity Career Development Award and funding from Fight for Sight for projects such as a PhD studentship investigating genetics of inherited corneal diseases from 2022 to 2025. Her influential publications include 'The pathogenesis of keratoconus' published in Eye in 2014 with 485 citations, 'Missense mutations in a retinal pigment epithelium protein, bestrophin-1, cause retinitis pigmentosa' in The American Journal of Human Genetics in 2009 with 232 citations, 'TCF4-mediated Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy: Insights into a common trinucleotide repeat-associated disease' in Progress in Retinal and Eye Research in 2021 with 138 citations, and recent papers such as 'Rare variants in MIR184 are a novel genetic cause of Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy' in 2025 and 'Integrated monogenic and polygenic risk predicts disease progression in Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy' in 2026. With over 3,445 citations, her work has advanced understanding in ophthalmic genetics. She has supervised PhD students to completion and contributes to teaching in ophthalmology.