Rate My Professor Erica Fletcher

Professor Erica Fletcher is a Professor in the Department of Anatomy and Physiology, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. A clinically trained optometrist, she holds MSc and PhD degrees, with her interest in retinal function originating from her doctoral research. She was appointed to an academic position at the University of Melbourne in 2000 and promoted to full Professor in 2014. In 1996, she was awarded the CJ Martin Fellowship by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) for postdoctoral training at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt, Germany, under Professor Heinz Wässle. Professor Fletcher heads the Visual Neuroscience Laboratory, leading a team of researchers, postdoctoral fellows, and students. She has supervised 17 PhD students to completion, maintains a significant teaching load, and has served in leadership roles including Chair of the School Research Committee and Director of Research Training.

Her research centers on ophthalmological questions, particularly the mechanisms of photoreceptor death in retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, the roles of glial cells and microglia in diabetic retinopathy and other retinal vascular diseases, and strategies to replace lost photoreceptors or slow degeneration, such as through glial progenitor cells and purinergic signaling modulation. This work has secured major funding from the NHMRC, Health Research Council of New Zealand, and American Health Assistance Foundation. Professor Fletcher has earned multiple awards, including the Glenn A. Fry Award and Lecture from the American Academy of Optometry in 2016 for advancing optometry, the Irvin M. and Beatrice Borish Award in 2006, and the Collin Medal. She has published extensively in high-impact journals, with notable papers including 'Glycine and GABA receptors in the mammalian retina' (Vision Research, 1998), 'Fractalkine-induced microglial vasoregulation occurs within the retina in early diabetes' (PNAS, 2021), and contributions to genetic risk factors in severe macular degeneration (2025).