Mariya is a Clinician Scientist specialising in genetic eye diseases. 

She achieved first class honours for her BSc in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics in 2000 from Imperial College London. She then graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 2003 from Imperial College London.

In 2009 she completed her PhD in Molecular Ophthalmology from Imperial College London dissecting the molecular mechanisms involved in optic fissure morphogenesis and its defective closure leading to the human disorder known as ocular coloboma. 

In 2011, she was awarded a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Academic Clinical Lectureship at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and completed her Ophthalmology specialist training in the North Thames London Deanery. During this period, Mariya was awarded over 25 prizes for her research into genetic eye diseases and established her research laboratory in this field. She became a fellow of the Royal College of Ophthalmologists (FRCOphth) in 2015. 

In 2017 Mariya was awarded a Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellowship to study the molecular mechanisms of ocular maldevelopment, and received the Wellcome Beit Prize for one of the best fellowships of the cohort. She was appointed Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children where she has pioneered a tertiary referral genomic service for both children and adults with pan-ocular genetic eye disease. In 2019 Mariya was promoted to Associate Professor at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.

In 2020 she joined the Francis Crick Institute as the group leader of ocular genomics and therapeutics, where she continues her work to advance our understanding of inherited sight loss conditions and to develop novel therapies. 

Mariya is actively involved in public engagement, please follow her on twitter @MariyaMoosajee to find out the latest information.

Qualifications and history

2000
Imperial College London, London, UK
BSc
2003
Imperial College London, London, UK
MBBS
2009
Imperial College London, London, UK
PhD
2011
University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology
NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer
2015
Royal College of Ophthalmologists, London
FRCOphth
2017
University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology
Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Career Development Fellow
2017
Moorfields Eye Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London
Honorary Consultant Ophthalmologist
2019
University College London (UCL) Institute of Ophthalmology
Associate Professor
2020
Francis Crick Institute
Group Leader

Year published

Publication type

Crick Pre-Crick