Temitope Olayinka, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Maine, has uncovered new information about the nature of glaucoma that could one day allow eye doctors to more effectively detect it during routine exams.
Glaucoma, an eye disease that slowly damages the optic nerve, is a leading cause of blindness worldwide and is undiagnosed in nearly half the people who have it.
Olayinka is focused on understanding how changes in blood flow inside the eye may help clinicians detect glaucoma earlier and more accurately. Her work blends engineering, biomedical imaging and data science, contributing to a growing area of vision research on campus.
Olayinka, a doctoral researcher in electrical and computer engineering, studies the relationship between blood pressure and intraocular pressure, tension occurring within the eyeball, and how they influence blood vessels behind the eye. Her recent project used advanced ultrasound imaging to compare blood-flow patterns in healthy individuals and people with glaucoma, adding new insight into how the disease affects the optic nerve.
This work is part of the Laboratory for Computational and Mathematical Modeling in Medicine, Engineering and Technology (CoMET) Lab, led by Giovanna Guidoboni, dean of the Maine College of Engineering and Computing and interim vice president for research of the University of Maine and University of Maine at Machias.
Olayinka shared her initial findings during the 2025 Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) Annual Meeting. An abstract for her presentation at the meeting was published in one of ARVO’s journals, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science.
“Think of the eye like a garden that needs proper water pressure to stay healthy,” Olayinka said. “Blood flowing into the eye — controlled by blood pressure — is like water coming through a hose, while the pressure inside the eye itself acts like resistance against that flow. In this study, we found that the balance between these two pressures works differently in glaucoma patients compared to healthy individuals.”
A new understanding of glaucoma
By measuring how these two pressures interact, Olayinka can demonstrate the ways in which reduced blood flow in the optic nerve may contribute to the nerve damage that defines glaucoma. Her results suggest that clinicians may benefit from looking at both blood pressure and eye pressure when assessing a patient’s risk.
“What we found was that when we account for both mean arterial pressure, the average pressure pushing blood through your body, and intraocular pressure, the pressure inside the eye, we can better understand why glaucoma patients experience reduced blood flow to the optic nerve,” Olayinka said. “This reduced blood flow may contribute to the nerve damage that characterizes glaucoma. The findings suggest that managing both pressures, not just eye pressure alone, could be important for protecting vision in glaucoma patients.”
As her ARVO 2025 abstract explored how different combinations of eye pressure and blood pressure shape blood-flow behavior in glaucoma, Olayinka’s next step focuses on building tools that can capture those hemodynamic patterns more efficiently.
Beyond these preliminary findings, Olayinka is developing an automated system to make this type of imaging analysis faster and more consistent. Currently, specialists must manually extract blood-flow measurements from ultrasound images, a slow process that can vary from person to person.
“I am most excited about the automated analysis pipeline I am developing to extract blood flow measurements from color Doppler images,” Olayinka said. “This speed and consistency could transform how we monitor glaucoma patients.”
The future of routine eye exams
Olayinka hopes this system will someday give eye doctors real-time blood flow information during routine exams, helping them detect changes earlier and tailor treatments more precisely.
“This study is the result of more than 15 years of sustained work bridging engineering, computation and medicine,” Guidoboni said. “This work stems from a long-standing partnership with Dr. Alon Harris, an international leader in ocular physiology, pharmacology, imaging and technology from the Icahn School of Medicine in New York. This research effort has supported more than 50 trainees, including postdoctoral fellows, medical scientists, doctoral and master students, undergraduate students and high school students, while advancing our understanding of complex eye diseases like glaucoma.”
“Imagine a future where, during a routine eye exam, a clinician can immediately see detailed blood flow patterns synchronized with the patient’s heartbeat, tracking 16 different hemodynamic parameters automatically,” Olayinka said. “This could enable earlier detection of blood flow changes, more personalized treatment decisions and better monitoring of how well treatments are working.”
Before coming to UMaine, Olayinka worked in the telecommunications industry in Nigeria, where she helped configure and integrate sensor systems across active network sites. She later taught cybersecurity at First Technical University — an experience that continues to influence how she communicates complex research topics.
“My teaching experience in Nigeria taught me that the best learning happens when students can see both the technical mechanisms and the real-world implications of what they are studying,” Olayinka said.
At UMaine, Olayinka is an active mentor for youth STEM programs. She also supports robotics teams, participates in engineering outreach and serves as a judge for middle school and high school science fairs.
“The most meaningful experience has been serving as a judge at the Maine State Science Fair and the Middle School Science & Engineering Fair,” Olayinka said. “What struck me most was the genuine curiosity and creativity these young students brought to their projects.”
Her volunteer work reminds her of the importance of persistence — something she sees in both young learners and in her own research process. Across her biomedical modeling in AI and secure systems, Olayinka remains motivated by the question of how to turn complex, technical measurements into reliable tools that can help people.
Story by William Bickford, graduate student writer
Contact: Marcus Wolf, 207.581.3721; marcus.wolf@maine.edu
