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Dr Monica Berry

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Dr Monica Berry

NSQI, 1.10,
Tyndall Avenue, Bristol
BS8 1TL
(See a map)

mon.berry@bristol.ac.uk

Telephone Number (0117)3940014

Organisations

School of Physics

Research overview

I am fascinated by the complex interactions that occur in the tears and at the ocular surface. The preocular fluid is organised by long, sugar-rich polymers, called mucins, whose physiology and biophysics I am investigating. Which are the structural characteristics that underpin the many postulated mucin roles at the ocular surface? How do disease-induced changes in, say, polymer length and in the number and nature of sugar chains that decorate it, how do these changes affect the quality of the preocular fluid? How do they affect interactions with bacteria? These are a few of the questions to which we are finding answers. 

Another main research interest is developing in vitro toxicology tests that are mechanistically linked to ocular surface physiology. Towards assessing the effects of mild and moderate toxicants we have evolved a 3D construct that comprises a stratified epithelium and a stromal-cells populated collagen gel.

Key words

glycobiology, mucins, ocular surface, tears, in vitro toxicology, nanotoxicology

Expertise

I am fascinated by the complex interactions that occur in the tears and at the ocular surface. The preocular fluid is organised by long, sugar-rich polymers, called mucins, whose physiology and biophysics I am investigating. Which are the structural characteristics that underpin the many postulated mucin roles at the ocular surface? How do disease-induced changes in, say, polymer length and in the number and nature of sugar chains that decorate it, how do these changes affect the quality of the preocular fluid? How do they affect interactions with bacteria? These are a few of the questions to which we are finding answers. Another main research interest is developing in vitro toxicology tests that are mechanistically linked to ocular surface physiology. Towards assessing the effects of mild and moderate toxicants we have evolved a 3D construct that comprises a stratified epithelium and a stromal-cells populated collagen gel.

Expertise key words

  • mucins
  • ocular surface
  • tears
  • in vitro toxicology



    • Latest publications

    1. Berry, M, Corfield, AP & McMaster, TJ 2013, ‘Mucins: a dynamic biology’. Soft Matter, vol 9., pp. 1740-1743
    2. Baos, SC, Phillips, DB, Wildling, L, McMaster, TJ & Berry, MS 2012, ‘Distribution of Sialic Acids on Mucins and Gels: A Defense Mechanism’. Biophys J, vol 102., pp. 176-184
    3. Berry, M, Purslow, C, Murphy, PJ & Pult, H 2012, ‘Contact lens materials, mucin fragmentation and relation to symptoms’. Cornea, vol 31., pp. 770-6
    4. Sood, A, Salih, S, Roh, D, Lora, LL, Parry, MC, Hardiman, B, Keehan, R, Grummer, R, Winterhager, E, Gokhale, PJ, Andrews, PW, Abbott, C, Forbes, K, Westwood, M, Aplin, JD, Ingham, E, Papageorgiou, I, Berry, M, Liu, J, Dick, AD, Garland, RJ, Williams, N, Singh, R, Simon, AK, Lewis, M, Ham, J, Roger, L, Baird, DM, Crompton, LA, Caldwell, MA, Swalwell, H, Birch-Machin, M, Lopez-Castejon, G, Randall, A, Lin, H, Suleiman, M, Evans, WH, Newson, R & Case, CP 2011, ‘Signalling of DNA damage and cytokines across cell barriers exposed to nanoparticles depends on barrier thickness’. Nature Nanotechnology, vol 6., pp. 824 - 833
    5. Haward, SJ, Odell, JA, Berry, M & Hall, T 2011, ‘Extensional rheology of human saliva’. Rheologica Acta, vol 50., pp. 869-879
    6. Verey, F, Nexo, E, Greenwood, R, Berry, M & Corfield, AP 2011, ‘Trefoil factor family peptides are increased in the saliva of children with mucositis’. Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine, vol 49., pp. 2051-2055
    7. Berry, M, Pult, H, Purslow, C & Murphy, P 2008, ‘Mucins and ocular signs in symptomatic and asymptomatic contact lens wear’. Optom Vis Sci, vol 85., pp. E930 - E938
    8. Royle, L, Matthews, E, Corfield, A, Berry, M, Rudd, P, Dwek, R & Carrington, S 2008, ‘Glycan structures of ocular surface mucins in man, rabbit and dog display species differences’. Glycoconjugate Journal, vol 25., pp. 763 - 773
    9. Pult, H, Purslow, C, Berry, M & Murphy, P 2008, ‘Clinical tests for successful contact lens wear: theirs relations and predictability’. Optom Vis Sci, vol 85., pp. E924 - E929
    10. Round, A, McMaster, T, Miles, M, Corfield, A & Berry, M 2007, ‘The isolated MUC5AC gene product from human ocular mucin displays intramolecular conformational heterogeneity’. Glycobiology, vol 17 (6)., pp. 578 - 585

    Full publications list in the University of Bristol publications system

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