Rachael Pearson received her PhD from University College London. She remained at UCL for many years, moving to UCL’s Institute of Ophthalmology in 2007 to take up a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. In 2020, she and her long-standing collaborator, Professor Robin Ali moved their team to King’s College London, to the Centre for Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine. Her research focusses on the development of cell therapy for the treatment of retinal degenerations. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers with several landmark papers and preclinical proof-of-concept studies that have provided the basis for stem cell-derived photoreceptor transplantation. Complementary to this main programme of research, Rachael has strong interests in retinal development and degeneration and how these respective processes may be harnessed for improving regenerative therapies including transplantation and endogenous repair.