Jessica K. Mountford

Dr Jessica K. Mountford serves as an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia Medical School within the Centre for Ophthalmology and Visual Science, which is affiliated with the Lions Eye Institute. She also holds an Adjunct Appointment at La Trobe University. Currently, she is the 6th Brian King Fellow at the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, a position held from February 2021 to February 2024.

Dr Mountford earned her PhD in Clinical Haematology from Monash University in Melbourne in 2012, with her dissertation titled 'Defining the role of class II Phosphoinositide 3-Kinases in platelet function.' Prior to her current positions, she worked as a Research Officer at Monash University's Australian Centre for Blood Diseases (May 2012-December 2013) and as a Post-doctoral Researcher with the Neuroecology Group at the University of Western Australia (January 2013-July 2017).

Her primary research focuses on investigating the genetic and environmental causes of early-onset myopia (short-sightedness), with particular attention to how COVID-19 lockdowns have influenced the growing prevalence of myopia in children. She utilizes zebrafish models to study complex gene-environment interactions responsible for myopia development. Additional research interests include evolutionary genetics, visual and non-visual opsin and light detection, and platelet biology. Her work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to health and well-being.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals a strong focus on vision science, particularly myopia genetics, opsin research, and refractive error mechanisms. Her work spans evolutionary biology, molecular genetics, and clinical ophthalmology, with significant contributions to understanding visual adaptation in diverse species from deep-sea fish to reptiles and primates. Her research demonstrates interdisciplinary connections between genetics, environmental factors, and visual system development.

• Western Australian Near-miss Award
• Brian King Fellowship (2021-2024)
• Telethon 7 funding
• Lions Save Sight Foundation W.A. support
• Australian Vision Research funding
• Perpetual Philanthropy Program support

Dr Mountford serves as a Primary Honours supervisor for the UWA School of Biomedical Sciences (2022). Her research is funded by multiple sources including the Department of Health (Western Australia) for the project 'Genetic and environmental influences on the development of myopia: addressing a rising global prevalence post-pandemic' (2023-2024), and the Ophthalmic Research Institute of Australia for 'Establishing zebrafish morpholino as a model to study early-onset myopia' (2022). She has received significant media attention with her work picked up by 104 news outlets and referenced in 7 Wikipedia pages.

Her research is conducted through the Lions Eye Institute in Perth, where she holds her Brian King Fellowship position. The institute provides the primary infrastructure for her work on myopia and vision research. She collaborates extensively with researchers across multiple institutions as evidenced by her co-authorship on high-impact publications in journals like Science, with one paper receiving over 150 Scopus citations and significant social media attention (2,522 shares/comments).