A Curtin researcher from the Curtin Medical School has been awarded $429,000 after winning a 2025 Early-Career Child Health Researcher Fellowship for a revolutionary project that seeks to stop child blindness.

Led by Dr Susbin Wagle, the project aims to develop a new form of eye gel that safely and painlessly protects the retinas of children with inherited retinal diseases, using a new antioxidant drug invented at Curtin.

Inherited retinal diseases are genetic eye conditions which often cause blindness in children and are estimated to affect more than two million people globally.

Congratulations to Dr Wagle and research supervisor Dr Hani Al-Salami for their funding success.

For more information, read our media release here.