
A partnership of Chinese and Australian researchers seeking breakthroughs in treatments for myopia has received an important boost, with a promise of more collaborative research in China.
The Memorandum of Understanding between the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Centre (ZOC) of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, and the Brien Holden Vision Institute, based in Sydney, will encourage future research cooperation, through the establishment of the Australia China Centre for Optometry Research and Development.
The Centre will be the base for collaborative research on refractive error. Refractive error includes conditions such as myopia and hyperopia, which affect the vision of billions worldwide. Myopia alone affects
more than 600 million Chinese people.
The ZOC and the Brien Holden Vision Institute based in Sydney, Australia, have been key participants in the Vision Cooperative Research Centre, a unique worldwide collaboration of research and industry organisations in vision research to deliver breakthrough treatments for the most common eye conditions.
The collaboration has led to a major development in the treatment of myopia – award-winning new spectacle and contact lens designs that promise to help reduce the growing burden of myopia, especially in young children with a history of parental myopia.