Dr Julie Ching-Hsia Lim

BSc/MSc(First class honours)/PhD (University of Auckland)

Senior Lecturer

In: Medical Science » Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences

Senior Research Fellow

In: Physiology » Medical Science » Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences

Research | Current

Research interests include antioxidants, membrane transporters and the lens.

Dr Julie Lim is a Research Fellow in the Molecular Vision Lab headed by Professor Paul Donaldson. Her research is focussed on identifying medical strategies to delay the onset of age related nuclear cataracts. More specifically, she is involved in identifying and characterizing transporters involved in the uptake of antioxidants such as glutathione (GSH) and cysteine.

In 2007 she was awarded a FoRST post-doctoral fellowship which enabled her to translate her work on antioxidant transporters in rodent lenses to human lenses. More recently she was awarded a Sir Charles Hercus Health Research fellowship which will allow her to extend these studies to other tissues of the eye.

Teaching | Current

Optom 272

Optom 472

MedSci 739

Postgraduate supervision

Ankita Umapathy (PhD student): Mapping of glutathione metabolism and transport pathways in the aging eye-is the lens a reservoir of glutathione?

Renita Martis (PhD student): The role of the cystine/glutamate exchanger in maintaining redox balance in the eye

Areas of expertise

Antoxidants, oxidative stress and the aging eye

Selected publications and creative works (Research Outputs)

Thrimawithana, T. R., Rupenthal, I. D., Räsch SS, Lim, J. C., Morton, J. D., & Bunt, C. R. (2018). Drug delivery to the lens for the management of cataracts. Advanced drug delivery reviews, 126, 185-194. 10.1016/j.addr.2018.03.009
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Ilva Rupenthal
Umapathy, A., Li, B., Donaldson, P. J., & Lim, J. C. (2018). Functional characterisation of glutathione export from the rat lens. Experimental eye research, 166, 151-159. 10.1016/j.exer.2017.10.010
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Paul Donaldson
Vorontsova, I., Donaldson, P. J., Kong, Z., Wickremesinghe, C., Lam, L., & Lim, J. C. (2017). The modulation of the phosphorylation status of NKCC1 in organ cultured bovine lenses: Implications for the regulation of fiber cell and overall lens volume. Experimental Eye Research, 165, 164-174. 10.1016/j.exer.2017.08.009
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Paul Donaldson
Lim, J. C., Perwick, R. D., Li, B., & Donaldson, P. J. (2017). Comparison of the expression and spatial localization of glucose transporters in the rat, bovine and human lens. Experimental eye research, 161, 193-204. 10.1016/j.exer.2017.06.012
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Paul Donaldson
Yoganandarajah, V., Li, B., Umapathy, A., Donaldson, P. J., & Lim, J. C. (2017). Regional differences in glutathione accumulation pathways in the rat cornea: Mapping of amino acid transporters involved in glutathione synthesis. Experimental Eye Research, 161, 89-100. 10.1016/j.exer.2017.04.002
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Paul Donaldson
Lim, J. C., Vorontsova, I., Martis, R. M., & Donaldson, P. J. (2017). Animal models in cataract research. In P. M. Conn (Ed.) Animal models for the study of human disease (pp. 103-116). London, United Kingdom: Academic Press. 10.1016/B978-0-12-809468-6.00004-8
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Paul Donaldson
Jayaratne, S. K., Donaldson, P. J., Vickers, M. H., & Lim, J. C. (2017). The Effects of Maternal Under-Nutrition and a Post-Natal High Fat Diet on Lens Growth, Transparency and Oxidative Defense Systems in Rat Offspring. Current Eye Research, 42 (4), 589-599. 10.1080/02713683.2016.1214969
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Mark Vickers, Paul Donaldson
Lim, J. C., Umapathy, A., Grey, A. C., Vaghefi, E., & Donaldson, P. J. (2017). Novel roles for the lens in preserving overall ocular health. Experimental Eye Research, 156, 117-123. 10.1016/j.exer.2016.05.027
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2292/33343
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Gus Grey, Ehsan Vaghefi, Paul Donaldson