Professor Matthew Burton

Professor of international eye health & Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow in Clinical Science
Matthew.Burton [at] lshtm.ac.uk
Prof Matthew Burton

Matthew Burton is an ophthalmologist. He qualified in medicine from Cambridge University in 1994. His post-graduate training was in Oxford and at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London. From 2001 to 2004 he worked as a clinical research fellow at the LSHTM on a Wellcome Trust funded trachoma research programme based at the MRC Laboratories in The Gambia. He was subsequently based at the Department of Ophthalmology, KCMC Hospital, Moshi, Tanzania from 2008 to 2012.

Matthew's main research focus is on trachoma. This has involved a range of projects on the control and pathogenesis of this blinding infectious disease. Studies have included several clinical trials on the management of trichiasis, longitudinal studies on the impact of mass azithromycin treatment and a range of studies investigating the immunopathogenic response that leads to the scarring complications of this infection.

Matthew is also involved in research into fungal and bacterial corneal infections in India, conjunctival squamous cell carcinoma in Kenya and the development of smartphone based applications for eye care.

Matthew holds a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship in Clinical Science which supports research on the control and pathogenesis of blinding trachoma in Ethiopia and Tanzania.

He is a Professor within the International Centre for Eye Health at the LSHTM and an Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital.