Meet Grace

Grace was a bright and cheerful teenager with no major prior medical issues until she began noticing strange black spots obscuring her vision. Her symptoms rapidly worsened, leaving Grace and her family in shock at the severity of her condition. After thorough assessments, her ophthalmologist diagnosed her with severe inflammation of the blood vessels in her eyes, a condition that posed a permanent threat to her vision.

​The impact on Grace’s life was profound. She was no longer able to participate in activities that raised her blood pressure—no more sports, no more carefree moments as a typical teenager.

In 2024, Grace was referred to the CPM under the care of Associate Professor Simon Jiang. Without delay, the lab team began an in-depth investigation to uncover the underlying cause of her illness. Under the CPM’s personalised medicine assessment, the research team worked tirelessly to test possible cellular causes to provide answers and hope for Grace’s future.

A/Professor Jiang and his senior research team successfully identified the abnormal immune response driving inflammation in Grace's eyes. A targeted medication was prescribed to address this mechanism, and as a result, the inflammation in her eyes has resolved.

“Aren’t we lucky in Australia, that we have this amazing capacity to tunnel down and try and work out what’s happening in someone’s body and that we have the resources and expertise and the generosity of people’s time and willingness to scope out research as this program does and that we are the beneficiaries of all that” – Heidi Campbell, Grace’s mom.