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Linda D. Hazlett
Distinguished Professor & Chair, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
Anatomy & Cell Biology and Distinguished Professor Ophthalmology & Immunology/Microbiology
Research Subject: Corneal infection
Focus: Host immune response to bacterial keratitis
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Elizabeth Berger, PhD
Assistant Professor in Anatomy & Cell Biology and Ophthalmology
Research Subject: Ocular Immunology
Focus: Bacterial Keratitis
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Bruce Berkowitz, Ph.D.
Diabetic retinopathy; retinal physiology
Focus: Dr. Berkowitz’s research is focused on the development and application of develop and apply new analytical MRI methods for discovering new perspectives on retinal pathophysiology and its treatment in experimental models of diabetic retinopathy.
Title: Professor in Anatomy and Cell Biology, and Ophthalmology
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Tomomi Ichinose, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Research Subject: Mechanisms of Visual Signal Processing in the RetinaFocus: Physiological functions of bipolar cells in the mouse retina
- Published Articles:
- Summary of Research:
- Our visual system perceives the world as functions of time, space, and color. The temporal visual processing pathways encode time (temporal) information of an object. These pathways are broadly classified into transient pathways and sustained pathways based on their neural responses, which are thought to encode changing objects and static visual information, respectively. The transient/sustained dichotomy is recognized in retinal second order neurons, which are bipolar cells, suggesting that temporal processing originates in bipolar cells. Recently, morphological studies have revealed more than 10 subtypes of bipolar cells in the mammalian retina, which might initiate distinct pathways encoding different features of temporal signals. However, no studies have addressed how each subtype of bipolar cell in the mammalian retina encodes temporal visual information. In response to this research gap, my goal is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of temporal encoding in each subtype of bipolar cell.We use electrophysiological recording techniques and immunohistochemical method to analyze temporal visual encoding in individual bipolar cells. We found that each ON bipolar cell encode different aspects of temporal visual information in a subtype-dependent manner (Figure 1) (Ichinose et al., 2014). We are currently working on the elucidation of underlying mechanisms of temporal encodings.These studies will improve our understanding of parallel processing in the retinal neural network, which will contribute to the future design of a functional retinal prosthesis and sight restoring gene therapies.Figure 1. Six subtypes of ON bipolar cells and their responses to step-light stimuli.
- Our visual system perceives the world as functions of time, space, and color. The temporal visual processing pathways encode time (temporal) information of an object. These pathways are broadly classified into transient pathways and sustained pathways based on their neural responses, which are thought to encode changing objects and static visual information, respectively. The transient/sustained dichotomy is recognized in retinal second order neurons, which are bipolar cells, suggesting that temporal processing originates in bipolar cells. Recently, morphological studies have revealed more than 10 subtypes of bipolar cells in the mammalian retina, which might initiate distinct pathways encoding different features of temporal signals. However, no studies have addressed how each subtype of bipolar cell in the mammalian retina encodes temporal visual information. In response to this research gap, my goal is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of temporal encoding in each subtype of bipolar cell.We use electrophysiological recording techniques and immunohistochemical method to analyze temporal visual encoding in individual bipolar cells. We found that each ON bipolar cell encode different aspects of temporal visual information in a subtype-dependent manner (Figure 1) (Ichinose et al., 2014). We are currently working on the elucidation of underlying mechanisms of temporal encodings.These studies will improve our understanding of parallel processing in the retinal neural network, which will contribute to the future design of a functional retinal prosthesis and sight restoring gene therapies.Figure 1. Six subtypes of ON bipolar cells and their responses to step-light stimuli.
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Renu A. Kowluru, PhD
Professor of Ophthalmology, Anatomy/Cell Biology and Endocrinology
Research Subject: Molecular Mechanism of Pathogenesis of Diabetic Retinopathy
Focus: Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Epigenetic Modifications
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Ashok Kumar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology
Wayne State University School of Medicine
Kresge Eye Institute
Bacterial endophthalmitis is a vision-threatening complication of penetrating eye injury and intraocular surgery, notably cataract surgery, the most common ophthalmic procedure performed in older populations in the United States. Approximately, 3 out of 1000 patients develop bacterial endophthalmitis after cataract surgery. As the aged population in the US is expected to grow dramatically, the number of cataract surgeries performed will also increase significantly, resulting in a proportional increase in the incidence of endophthalmitis. The visual properties of the retina are highly sensitive to inflammation-caused damage therefore, a rapid detection and clearance of invading pathogens is critical in minimizing retinal damage.
Dr. Kumar’s lab research interests are to understand the regulation of retinal innate immunity in endophthalmitis and to identify the potential targets for intervention. Recognition of microbial infection and initiation of host defense responses is controlled by multiple mechanisms. The host innate immune system uses a series of pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) to detect the presence of pathogens, thus allowing rapid host defense responses to invading microbes. A key component of such receptors is the “Toll-like receptor” (TLR). Previous studies from our laboratory and others have revealed an important role of TLRs in mediating innate immune response at the ocular surface. Although the expression and function of TLRs in many tissues have been studied extensively, few studies are related to the retina. Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells have been shown to express TLR2, TLR3, TLR4, and TLR9. However, many questions fundamental to the understanding of retinal innate immunity remain elusive. For example: what cell types in the retinal tissue are involved in recognition of invading pathogens in endophthalmitis? Does the TLR innate system exist in the retina? If yes, which TLRs are involved? How might retinal cells respond to bacteria or the TLR ligand challenge? The main objective of our research is to define the role of TLRs in bacterial endophthalmitis using mouse models of S. aureus endophthalmitis and cultured retinal cells in vitro. A better understanding of host-pathogen interaction in the retina will allow more effective therapeutic strategies to prevent or treat bacterial endophthalmitis.
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Zhuo-Hua Pan
Professor
Research Subject:Rodents and non-human primates
Focus: Optogenetic approaches for restoration of vision and retinal visual processing
Title: Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Anatomy/Cell Biology;
Edward T. and Ellen K. Dryer Endowed Professor of Ophthalmology;
Scientific Director of the Ligon Research Center of Vision, Kresge Eye Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine.
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Shunbin Xu, M.D. and Ph.D.
Associate professor
Research Subject: microRNAs in retina and ocular diseases
Focus:
1) microRNAs in retinal degenerative diseases and aging.
2) microRNAs in diabetic retinopathy – diagnosis and treatment.
3) microRNAs in bacterial keratitis.
4) microRNAs in glaucoma.
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Jena J. Steinle, PhD
Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Ophthalmology
Area/Subject of Research: Retinal Vascular Biology
Research Focus: Diabetic Retinopathy, Vascular Biology of Ocular Cancers
Education: Post-Doc (Vascular Biology)–Texas A&M University, Temple, TX 2003
PhD—University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, 2001
BS–University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT, 1997
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Susmit Suvas, PhD
Associate Professor in Ophthalmology
Research Subject: To understand the immunopathogenesis of herpes simplex virus-1 infection induced keratitis
Focus: Role of peripheral nervous system in regulating corneal HSV-1 infection and inflammation
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Lalit Singh Pukhrambam, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Anatomy/Cell Biology and Ophthalmology
Research Subject: Diabetic retinopathy
Focus: Critical role of Thioredoxin Interacting Protein (TXNIP) in mitochondrial dynamics, stress response and neurovascular degeneration in diabetic retinopathy
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Fu-Shin X. Yu, Ph.D.
Professor of Ophthalmology, Anatomy and Cell Biology
Research Subject: Corneal wound healing and innate immunity
Focus:
i. Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying development of peripheral neuropathy and delayed wound healing in diabetic cornea
ii. Toll-like receptor-5 ligand flagellin induced innate mucosal immune protection against microbial keratitis (infection).