The retina is the only part of the central nervous system that can be examined non-invasively and at high resolution in living humans. Dr Christina Mayer and her team at Bonn University Hospital (UKB) and the University of Bonn aim to use this unique feature to detect inflammatory and vascular diseases of the brain earlier and more accurately, and to better understand how they develop. The Corona Foundation is providing €1 million to establish her junior research group. The programme gives outstanding early-career researchers the opportunity to qualify for a university professorship over a period of five years.
Using advanced techniques such as optical coherence tomography (OCT), nerve cells and the smallest blood vessels in the retina can be visualised at high resolution and combined with precise measurements of visual function. This may make it possible to detect disease-related changes before they become visible in clinical examinations or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. Inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and diseases affecting the small blood vessels of the brain - which can increase the risk of stroke and dementia - can produce similar changes in the brain’s white matter on MRI. However, these findings are often non-specific and may already indicate advanced tissue damage.
“Our aim is to make changes in the brain visible where we can measure them particularly early and precisely: in the retina,” says Dr Christina Mayer. “If we can distinguish these disease processes based on their retinal signatures and better understand the underlying mechanisms, we may be able to diagnose diseases earlier and tailor treatments more closely to individual disease mechanisms in the future.”
Dr Mayer is investigating this approach through the project RE-DEFINE (Retinal Imaging to Differentiate Inflammatory from Neurovascular Endotypes), funded by the Corona Foundation. Her junior research group is integrated into the clinical and scientific infrastructure of the Department of Neurology, particularly the Clinic for Neuroimmunology and Neuromuscular Diseases at UKB, headed by Prof Anne-Katrin Pröbstel.
In close collaboration with Prof Pröbstel’s research group - which is part of the University of Bonn’s ImmunoSensation³ Cluster of Excellence and led by a research group leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) - Dr Mayer combines expertise in neuroimmunological diseases and their underlying mechanisms with new approaches to neurovisual diagnostics. Her research brings together high-resolution retinal imaging and visual-function measurements with MRI scans and molecular analyses, both in experimental models and in patients. Using machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), she will integrate these data to identify shared and disease-specific mechanisms of neuroinflammatory and neurovascular diseases and develop diagnostic models.
The project is being carried out in collaboration with the Department of Ophthalmology (Prof Frank Holz), the Departments of Neuroradiology (Prof Alexander Radbruch) and Vascular Neurology (Prof Gabor Petzold), the Rheumatology Section (Prof Valentin Schäfer) and the Institute of Neurovascular Cell Biology (Prof Ruiz de Almodóvar) at UKB, as well as the University of Bonn’s ImmunoSensation³ Cluster of Excellence.
“Our long-term goal is to develop accessible biomarkers that enable earlier and more accurate diagnoses, support treatment decisions and help predict the course of disease in individual patients,” says Dr Mayer. “In the future, the retina could therefore make an important contribution to personalised neurological diagnostics and a better understanding of brain diseases.”
About Dr Christina Mayer
Dr Christina Mayer has been working as a resident physician at UKB since July 2026. She studied human medicine at Heidelberg University, including placements at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and University College London. From 2019 to 2026, she completed her specialist training in neurology at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, where she also conducted research as a clinician scientist.
During this time, she began using the retina as a platform to better understand regeneration in the central nervous system, using acute optic neuritis as a model, and to investigate mechanisms of inflammatory neurodegeneration. Her research has received awards including the Martini Prize and has been published in journals such as Cell and Nature.
Scientific contacts
Prof Dr Anne-Katrin Pröbstel
Department of Neurology & Clinic for Neuroimmunology and Neuromuscular Diseases - Bonn University Hospital
ImmunoSensation³ Cluster of Excellence - University of Bonn
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)
Email: anne-katrin.proebstel@ukbonn.de
Dr Christina Mayer
Department of Neurology & Clinic for Neuroimmunology and Neuromuscular Diseases
Bonn University Hospital (UKB)
Email: Christina.Mayer@ukbonn.de
Press contact
Dr Inka Väth
Deputy Press Spokesperson
Bonn University Hospital (UKB)
Communications and Media Office
Bonn University Hospital Phone: +49 228 287-10596 Email: inka.vaeth@ukbonn.de
