The retinal cell biology and anatomy laboratory

The interests of our research group are:

1. Organelle trafficking dynamics in photoreceptor cells: Visual transduction in the retina is achieved through unique structural and functional adaptations of the photoreceptor cell. The compact architectural features of the photoreceptor cell pose unique challenges in organelle synthesis, packing, trafficking, and inter-organelle interaction. Our group is interested in cellular homeostatic processes such as endocytosis, lysosome trafficking and function, autophagy in photoreceptors. Defects in these critical processes are the molecular basis of several inherited and age-associated blinding diseases.

2. Lipid homeostasis in the retina: Cellular demand for lipids is met by local synthesis, import, or recycling. Our lab is interested in the retinal homeostatic mechanisms of an important class of lipids called isoprenoids. We study how important isoprenoids such as dolichol and cholesterol are synthesized in the retina. This work directly pertains to rare inherited metabolic disorders with associated visual system dysfunction, such as SLOS, RP59, and SRD5A3. We use genetic engineering, molecular biology, and biochemical approaches to model these complicated metabolic diseases. There are no currently available, effective therapeutic approaches to treat these devastating systemic disorders.

3. Geometric modeling of the retinal architecture: Our group studies the geometric properties associated with the spatial arrangement of neurons in the human retina. We model the packing properties of retinal neurons in normal and diseased conditions. This is an interdisciplinary, collaborative project that applies histochemistry, biochemistry, anatomy, microscopy, image analysis and processing, systems biology, discrete and computational geometry, combinatorial theorems, and graph theory approaches. The long-term goal of this project is to develop image analytical tools to aid early clinical diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, and even retinitis pigmentosa.