WERKMEISTER René, Ph.D.

Research Interests: Biomedical imaging, Optical Coherence Tomography, Morphological and Functional Imaging in the Eye, Ocular Blood Flow, Corneal and Dermal Wound Healing

My research focuses on the development and application of optical methods for biomedical imaging; here in particular functional imaging in the retina and high-resolution morphological and functional imaging in the anterior eye segment and the skin. There is an increasing interest in both preclinical and clinical research for easily applicable and accurate imaging techniques. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive imaging modality based on interferometric principles. Its high resolution and non-invasive nature made it an important instrument in retinal, corneal but also dermatologic imaging. My research group employs OCT and its functional extension Doppler OCT for measurement of retinal blood flow at its changes due to various diseases in both preclinical diseases models and humans, allowing to detect and monitor tis changes before onset of other clinical signs and symptoms. Further, due to its high accuracy, the technology can be employed to study and track corneal and dermal wound healing in a longitudinal manner.
Ultimately, these imaging methods can help to gain novel insight into the physiology in different transparent and semitransparent tissues and pathophysiology of various diseases.

Methods & Techniques

Optical coherence tomography (OCT); OCT angiography,;ultrahigh-resolution OCT anterior eye segment; microscopy; histology; Langmuir-Blodgett trough

Selected Publications

Krebs M, Krssak M, Weghuber D, Nowotny P, Gruber S, Mlynarik V, Bischof MG, Stingl H, Fürnsinn C, Waldhäusl W, Roden M. Free fatty acids inhibit the glucose-stimulated increases of intramuscular glucose-6-phosphate concentrations in man. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 86: 2153-2160, 2001

Pantalon A, Pfister M, Aranha Dos Santos V, Sapeta S, Unterhuber A, Pircher N, Schmidinger G, Garhöfer G, Schmidl D, Schmetterer L, Werkmeister RM. Ultrahigh-resolution anterior segment optical coherence tomography for analysis of corneal microarchitecture during wound healing. Acta Ophthalmol [Epub ahead of print] (February 2019)

Fondi K, Wozniak PA, Howorka K, Bata AM, Aschinger GC, Popa-Cherecheanu A, Witkowska KJ, Hommer A, Schmidl D, Werkmeister RM, Garhöfer G, Schmetterer L. Retinal oxygen extraction in individuals with type 1 diabetes with no or mild diabetic retinopathy. Diabetologia 60: 1534-1540, 2017

Werkmeister RM, Sapeta S, Schmidl D, Garhöfer G, Schmidinger G, Aranha dos Santos V, Aschinger GC, Baumgartner I, Pircher N, Schwarzhans F, Pantalon A, Dua H, Schmetterer L. Ultrahigh-resolution OCT maging of the human cornea. Biomed Opt Exp 8: 121-1239, 2017

Aschinger GC, Schmetterer L, Fondi K, Aranha Dos Santos V, Seidel G, Garhöfer G, Werkmeister RM. Effect of Diffuse Luminance Flicker Light stimulation on total retinal blood flow assessed with dual-beam bidirectional Doppler OCT. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 58: 1167-1178, 2017

Told R, Wang L, Cull G, Thompson SJ, Burgoyne CF, Aschinger GC, Schmetterer L, Werkmeister RM. Total retinal blood flow in a nonhuman primate optic nerve transection model using dual-beam bidirectional Doppler FD-OCT and microsphere method. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 57: 1432-1440, 2016

Werkmeister RM, Schmidl D, Aschinger G, Doblhoff-Dier V, Palkovits S, Wirth M, Garhöfer G, Linsenmeier RA, Leitgeb RA, Schmetterer L. Retinal oxygen extraction in humans. Sci Rep 5: 15763, 2015

Werkmeister RM, Vietauer M, Knopf C, Fürnsinn C, Leitgeb RA, Reitsamer H, Gröschl M, Garhöfer G, Vilser W, Schmetterer L. Measurement of retinal blood flow in the rat by combining Doppler Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography with fundus imaging. J Biomed Opt 19: 106008, 2014