Biomedical Graduate Studies

Description of Research Expertise

My research interest focuses on understanding the genetic basis of glaucoma and using this information to develop novel drugs for the treatment of optic neuropathies. My long-term goal is to address hindrance of compliance to the clinical management of glaucoma with adeno-associated vector gene targets. To date, I have worked in three different areas of research: understanding
mechanisms of programmed cell death, developing drugs to control this process, and finally developing a knock-out mouse models using advanced cloning methods. After completing two fellowships in Neuro-ophthalmology and Glaucoma, I am pursuing these same mechanisms of extracellular cross talk and intracellular anti-apoptotic pathways to treat diseases involved in optic nerve degeneration and cell protection. It is my goal to develop gene-transfer techniques to reverse the process of optic nerve cell death in glaucoma. While my primary focus currently emphasizes the role of SIRT1 as a potential gene target to enhance retinal ganglion cell survive, my ultimate goal is to develop a strategy to replace gene mutations with viral gene
transduction in a cell targeted manner, with the aim of treating glaucoma at every cell type effected by
the disease.