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Research Interests
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Mechanisms and therapeutics for age-related retinal neurodegeneration
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Key words: Macular degeneration, oxidative stress, iron transport, apoptosis, retina, aging, inflammation, transcriptomics
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Description of Research
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Age related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of irreversible blindness, yet its pathogenesis is poorly understood. Evidence suggests that cumulative oxidative damage contributes to AMD and aging in general. The Dunaief lab has found that AMD retinas have iron overload, which can cause oxidative stress. Increased understanding of retinal iron homeostasis may lead to treatments for AMD. To investigate the mechanisms of retinal iron regulation, the lab uses conditional knockout mouse models, human retinal tissue, and retinal cell tissue culture. A mouse line deficient in the iron transporting ferroxidases ceruloplasmin and hephaestin develops age-dependent retinal iron overload and retinal degeneration with features of AMD (Hahn et al., PNAS, 2004). Recent research in the lab indicates that inflammation promotes cellular iron overload in a vicious cycle leading to cell death. Our current focus is on the mechanisms of retinal iron homeostasis and development of therapeutics to protect the retina.
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Rotation Projects
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1)Study mechanisms of retinal iron regulation by performing histology and immunofluorescence on retinal sections from conditional knockout mice. You will learn retinal anatomy and the techniques of ocular microdissection, cryosectioning, plastic sectioning and fluorescence microscopy.
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2)In retinal cell culture, study the effects of inflammatory mediators on retinal iron transporters. You will learn tissue culture, qPCR, Western analysis, and cell death assays.
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3) Use FACS to isolate single retinal cell types and determine the effects of iron transporter knockouts on their transcriptome.
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Lab personnel:
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Delu Song, Research Associate
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Ying Song, Research Specialist
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Bailey Baumann, VMD/PhD Student
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Edward Linton, UPenn Medical Student
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Rupak Bhuyan, UPenn Medical Student
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Danielle Minichino, CAMB Rotating Student
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Shounan Qi, Visiting Scholar
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Jacob Sterling, UPenn Undergraduate
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Samy Guttha, Drexel Undergraduate
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age-related macular degeneration (AMD)
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Selected Publications
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Foshe S, Anderson BD, Song Y, Shi S, Lee S, Bell BA, Park HG, Brenna JT, Shchepinov M, Dunaief JL.: Oral Deuterated Docosahexaenoic Acid Protects Against Onset and Progression of RPE Degeneration in a Mouse Model of Chronic Oxidative Stress. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 67: 28, Apr 2026.
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Foshe S, Shi S, Bell BA, Lee S, Shankar A, Dine K, Song Y, Vithayathil J, Ross AG, Dunaief JL.: A Remarkable Tale: Increased Retinal Fluorescence Following Application of Permanent Marker Ink to Mouse Tails. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 67: 40, Mar 2026.
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Li J, Wang T, Lu W, Jishkariani D, Tsourkas A, Kaja S, Vining KH, Thussananutiyakul J, Spence A, Nair RM, Dunaief JL, Mitchell CH.: PLGA nanoparticles restore acidic pH and degradative function to compromised lysosomes with Cy3-labeling providing enhanced tracking to lysosomes. Am J Physiol Cell Physiol 330: C509-C523, Feb 2026.
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Zhang KR, Nair RM, Chen Y, Jin F, Dunaief JL, VanderBeek BL.: Oral Ursodeoxycholic Acid Is Associated With Decreased Rate of AMD. Clin Ther Sep 2025.
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Guo M, Schwartz TD, Lawrence ECN, Lu J, Zhong A, Wu J, Sterling JK, Nikonov S, Dunaief JL, Cui QN.: Loss of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 reduced monocyte recruitment and preserved retinal ganglion cells in a mouse model of hypertensive glaucoma. Exp Eye Res 254: 110325, Mar 2025.
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Zhang KR, Nair RM, Chen Y, Jin F, Dunaief J, VanderBeek BL.: Association of Age-Related Macular Degeneration with Cholelithiasis. Ophthalmol Sci 5: 100771, Mar 2025.
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Lee TT, Bell BA, Song Y, Dunaief JL.: Testosterone promotes photoreceptor degeneration in the sodium iodate model. Exp Eye Res Feb 2025.
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Anderson BD, Bell BA, Song Y, Lee TT, Wang T, Dunaief JL.: Systemic Sodium Iodate Injection as a Model for Expanding Geographic Atrophy. Transl Vis Sci Technol 14: 9, Jan 2025.
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Wang T, Song Y, Bell BA, Anderson BD, Lee TT, Yu W, Dunaief JL.: Complement C3 knockout protects photoreceptors in the sodium iodate model. Exp Eye Res Jan 2025.
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Wojciechowski AM, Bell BA, Song Y, Anderson BD, Conomikes A, Petruconis C, Dunaief JL.: Inducible RPE-specific GPX4 knockout causes oxidative stress and retinal degeneration with features of age-related macular degeneration. Exp Eye Res Oct 2024.
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Last updated: 05/17/2026
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The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
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