Since 1984 the Department of Medical Technology and Physics at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital has maintained a register of Western Australian families affected with an Inherited Retinal Disease (IRD). The information in this register includes detailed results of electrophysiological and psychophysical eye tests, family history details, and diagnoses. Collection and storage of DNA began in 2001.
This IRD register currently contains information on more than 1500 subjects, sourced from more than 850 families affected with an IRD. DNA is stored in the Western Australian DNA Bank for nearly 700 of these subjects, including for more than 90 controls.
This IRD Register and DNA Bank is maintained as a long term resource for genetic studies of inherited retinal disease in Australia. It will continue to evolve and be available for many years.
This resource is accessible to approved researchers, subject to appropriate ethics committee requirements. We invite all such researchers who are interested in using this resource to make enquiries through the Western Australian DNA bank.
Funding for this research is generously supported by grants from the West Australian Retinitis Pigmentosa Foundation.