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NuCore members

Dr Laura Young

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow

Background

I completed my MPhys and PhD in the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation at Durham University and then took up postdoc positions in Durham and Oxford, spanning visual perception and optical instrumentation. After a Career Development Lectureship in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, I joined the Biosciences Institute at Â鶹´«Ã½ as a Research Fellow supported by the Reece Foundation and was later awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship.

Research

My research develops and uses ophthalmic imaging systems to study the retina and visual system, with adaptive optics technology being at the core of my work. I am passionate about interdisciplinary research, particularly the interplay between the development of new optical and imaging techniques and the generation of new understanding in the life sciences. Members of my lab work on projects that span instrument development and applications in neuroscience and ophthalmology. Current projects include the use of cellular resolution retinal imaging (AOSLO) for eye tracking to study oculomotor control in patients with Parkinson's disease, photoreceptor mosaic imaging for investigating early biomarkers of retinal degeneration, and development of software and algorithms for AOSLO data analysis.

Publications

  • Articles

    • Padikal V, Plonkowski A, Lawton PF, Young LK, Read JCA. . Vision 2025, 9(2), 29.
    • Young LK, Kulcsár C, Hampson KM, Morris TJ, Booth MJ, Dubis A, Fernandez EJ, Hu Q, Mecê P, Meimon S, Neichel B, Osborn J, Sarunic MV, Townson MJ, Boffety M, Bouanani M, Lebrun S, Burcklen M-A, Clénet Y, Galland N, Jacubowiez L, de Jongh I, Lawton PF, Levraud N, Lognoné P, Papagiannouli I, Raynaud H-F, Artal P, Butterley T, Chambouleyron V, d'Orgeville C, Pircher M, Reeves AP. . Asian Journal of Physics 2025. In Press.
    • Kordek, D, Young, L, Voda, P, Kremlacek, J. . Scientific Reports 2024, 14, 21296. In Preparation.
    • d'Orgeville, C, Martinez Rey, N, Hellemeier, J, Masciadri, E, Rigaut, F, Haynes, R, Hibon, P, Kewley, L, Kulcsár, C, Sikora, J, Singh, R, Young, L. . Proc. SPIE 13097, Adaptive Optics Systems IX 2024, 130971E.
    • Shah M, Downes SM, Smithson HE, Young LK. . Scientific Reports 2024, 14, 23629.
    • Lerebours A, Regini J, Quinlan RA, Wada T, Pierscionek B, Devonshire M, Kalligeraki AA, Uwineza A, Young L, Girkin JM, Warwick P, Smith K, Hoshino M, Uesugi K, Yagi N, Terrill N, Shebanova O, Snow T, Smith JT. . Science of the Total Environment 2023, 902, 165957.
    • White R, Gasper G, McLeish T, Tanner B, Harvey J, Sønnesyn S, Young L, Smithson H. . ISIS 2021, 112(1), 93–107.
    • Christou JC, Girkin J, Kulcsar C, Young LK. . Optics Express 2021, 29(8), 11533-11537.
    • Young LK, Smithson HE. . Scientific Reports 2021, 11, 11225.
    • Kordek D, Young LK, Kremláček J. . Scientific Reports 2021, 11, 3437.
    • Hauperich A-K, Young LK, Smithson HE. . Journal of Eye movement Research 2020, 12(6).
    • Young LK, Jarrin M, Saunter CD, Quinlan RA, Girkin JM. . Biomedical Optics Express 2018, 9(5), 2176-2188.
    • Young LK, Morris TJ, Saunter CD, Smithson HE. . Biomedical Optics Express 2018, 9(9), 4275-4293.
    • Marcos S, Werner JS, Burns SA, Merigan WH, Artal P, Atchison DA, Hampson KM, Legras R, Lundstrom L, Yoon G, Carroll J, Choi SS, Doble N, Dubis AM, Dubra A, Elsner A, Jonnal R, Miller DT, Paques M, Smithson HE, Young LK, Zhang Y, Campbell M, Hunter J, Metha A, Palczewska G, Schallek J, Sincich LC. . Vision Research 2017, 132, 3-33.
    • Buckley C, Carvalho MT, Young LK, Rider SA, McFadden C, Berlage C, Verdon RF, Taylor JM, Girkin JM, Mullins JJ. . Scientific Reports 2017, 7, 5096.
    • Jarrin M, Young L, Wu W, Girkin JM, Quinlan RA. . Methods in Enzymology 2016, 568, 581-611.
    • Young LK, Smithson HE. . Frontiers in Psychology 2014, 5, 1060.
    • Young LK, Love GD, Smithson HE. Different aberrations raise contrast thresholds for single-letter identification in line with their effect on cross-correlation-based confusability. Journal of Vision 2013, 13(7), 1-14.
    • Young LK, Love GD, Smithson HE. Accounting for the phase, spatial frequency and orientation demands of the task improves metrics based on the visual Strehl ratio. Vision Research 2013, 90, 57-67.
    • Young LK, Liversedge SP, Myers RM, Love GD, Smithson HE. Not all aberrations are equal: Reading impairment depends on aberration type and magnitude. Journal of Vision 2011, 11(13), 20.
    • Guzmán D, Javier de Cos Juez F, Lasheras FS, Myers R, Young L. Deformable mirror model for open-loop adaptive optics using multivariate adaptive regression splines. Optics Express 2010, 18(7), 6492-6505.

  • Book Chapter

    • Lawton, PF, Padikal, VP, Quinn, S, Young, LK. Adaptive Optics Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy. In: E. Josua Fernández, ed. Handbook of Adaptive Optics. CRC Press, 2024. In Preparation.

  • Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

    • Quinn S, Lawton P, Browning A, Young L. . In: 62nd Annual Symposium of the International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV 2025). 2025, Utrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.
    • Hexley, C, Young, LK, Brainard, DH, Roorda, A, Tuten, WS, Smithson, HE. The relationship between temporal summation at detection threshold and fixational eye movements. In: Journal of Vision. 2023. In Preparation.
    • Young, LK, Hexley, AC, Read, JCA, Smithson, HE, Tuten, WS, Roorda, A. Does stimulus image quality affect fixational eye movement characteristics?. In: Journal of Vision. 2023. In Preparation.
    • Hexley, AC, Young, KL, McLeish, TCB, Smithson, HE. Measuring and modelling fixational eye movements. In: Journal of Vision. 2022. In Preparation.
    • Pathak B, Young LK, Smithson HE. . In: Medical Image Understanding and Analysis. MIUA 2020. 2020, Oxford, United Kingdom: Springer, Cham.
    • Shah M, Young LK, Downes SM, Smithson HE. . In: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting. 2019, Vancouver, Canada: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.
    • Smithson HE, Young LK, Hauperich A-K, Hexley AC, Regan SE. . In: Fall Vision Meeting. 2019, Washington DC: Journal of Vision.
    • Young LK, Smithson HE. . In: AVA Christmas Meeting. 2018, Queen Mary University of London: Sage.
    • Young LK, Hauperich A-K, Morris TJ, Saunter CD, Smithson HE. . In: OSA Fall Vision Meeting. 2017, Rochester New York: Journal of Vision.
    • Young LK, Jarrin M, Saunter CD, Quinlan R, Girkin JM. . In: Optical Methods in Developmental Biology III. 2015, San Francisco: SPIE.
    • Young LK, Love GD, Smithson HE. How feasible is it to capture the functional consequences of the optical distortions of the eye in a single metric?. In: AVA/BMVA meeting. 2012, Perception.
    • Young LK, Love GD, Liversedge SP, Smithson HE. How does the optical quality of the eye affect letter recognition and reading? Task-specific effects are revealed for optical distortions of text. In: European Conference on Visual Perception. 2012, Perception.
    • Young LK, Love GD, Smithson HE. Going beyond the wavefront: Improved predictions of performance obtained by accounting for the spatial frequency requirements of the task. In: Fall Vision Meeting. 2012, Journal of Vision.