Dr JOHN TIFFANY

Dr John Tiffany originally trained in physical and surface chemistry, and was introduced to biological systems during a postdoctoral period at the University of Pennsylvania. There he was introduced to the surface-chemical aspects of tear function, and has been working ever since on the physiology of tears and the ocular surface, especially in the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology in Oxford since the mid-1970s. He did much early work on the nature of the accessory components in tears, especially defining the character of ocular mucins and meibomian lipids. An important area of his work was to show that the long-held theory of the non-wettable corneal epithelium was incorrect, and to devise ways of measuring the corneal wettability. He has also pioneered a number of investigative techniques for use on the dry eye, including a micro-method for surface tension, meibometry to assess the meibomian gland output, and meniscometry. His major current area of interest is the properties of tear lipocalin, in particular its contribution, with bound tear lipids, to the surface tension and viscosity of the tears, and the involvement of other major tear proteins in transient structure formation in the tear film between blinks.