Associate Professor Lauren Ayton
Associate Professor Lauren Ayton is the Director of Program Delivery and Industry Engagement for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences. She is a Principal Investigator at both the University of Melbourne and the Centre for Eye Research Australia.
Her research interests are in retinal disease and emerging therapeutics, such as gene therapy. She has previously worked in both academia and industry on medical devices such as vision prostheses. This included time in the United States as Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs at Bionic Eye Technologies, a startup company from Harvard and Cornell Universities. Since her return to Australia in 2019, Lauren has been highly involved in the innovation and enterprise space, including as the Director of SPARK Melbourne, a research accelerator program that was founded at Stanford University. She is passionate about research translation, and getting medical products and treatments to patients as quickly as possible.