Jane Sowden

Sowden was an undergraduate in biochemistry at the University of Oxford.^[4] She moved to University College London for her doctorate, where she studied the carbonic anhydrase I gene.^[5]

After her PhD, Sowden moved to the Medical Research Council (MRC) human biochemical genetics unit. She was awarded a career development award in 1996 and spent four years working on retinal development at the Institute of Ophthalmology.^[4] Sowden established the eye development and repair research group^[6] at Great Ormond Street Hospital.^[4] She looks to understand the genetic pathways that underpin eye development. She is interested in how these pathways are disrupted in patients with eye disease.^[7] To explore these pathways, Sowden uses DNA sampling.^[7] Childhood blindness can involve structural malformations, which occur due to disruption of biological processes.^[7] The eye globe develops before birth from the embryonic optic cup. Mutations of the CHX10 gene can cause non-syndromic microphthalmia. By studying mice with CHX10 mutations Sowden looks to identify the molecular pathways that regulate relevant retinal progenitor cells. These cells undergo a number of cell divisions before producing all retinal neurons. Sowden has explored whether stem cells can be used to repair diseased retinal neurons during retinal diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa.^[7] She has explored whether the ciliary epithelium can be used to generate progenitor cells for photoreceptors. She has shown that the developing retina contains a population of rod photoreceptor precursor cells, which can be transplanted into a diseased retina to restore vision.^[7][8][9]

Her former doctoral students include Adam Rutherford.^[1]

Her publications^[2][3] include:

• Restoration of vision after transplantation of photoreceptors^[10]
• Retinal repair by transplantation of photoreceptor precursors^[11]
• Fox's in development and disease^[12]
• Photoreceptor precursors derived from three-dimensional embryonic stem cell cultures integrate and mature within adult degenerate retina^[13]