Welcome

The Liverpool Ocular Oncology Research Group’s (LOORG’s) mission is to conduct high quality basic, translational and clinical research into the pathogenesis and treatment of adult ocular tumours that will improve patient care and survival.

LOORG was established by Professor Sarah Coupland and Professor Bertil Damato in 2006. Prof Coupland has since led the basic science and translational research portfolio, in addition to being a Consultant Histopathologist at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, UK.
 
Over the years, several key members have joined and strengthened LOORG, in terms of its breadth and depth of basic and translational science. These include the experienced postdoctoral scientists: Dr Helen Kalirai, Dr Sarah Lake, Dr Karen Aughton, and Dr Carlos R. Figueiredo, who have undertaken their own research as well as supervised undergraduate and postgraduate students.
 
In particular, Dr Kalirai has been instrumental in establishing a well-characterised ocular melanoma biobank (the Liverpool Ocular Oncology Biobank [LOOB]), which supports the fundamental and translational research that LOORG is undertaking with its national and international collaborators.
 
A major strength of the LOORG is this capability to join forces with ocular oncology clinicians, medical oncologists, pathologists, medical statisticians, basic scientists and industry, to ensure that the research it conducts addresses the key questions that aims to bring about improved survival and quality of life for ocular oncology patients.
 
A particular example of this is how LOORG has collaborated as a multidisciplinary team to produce the “Liverpool Uveal Melanoma Prognosticator Online (LUMPO)”, to predict individualised risks for death from metastatic disease. In this way, uveal melanoma patients can be stratified into risk management groups for liver surveillance, surgery and clinical trial recruitment.

This website is for both patients, who wish to know more about the research that is being conducted by LOORG, and for researchers, who wish to explore the research interests and expertise within the group.