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UB's Ross Eye Institute Awarded $1.95 million 5-year grant to research retinal development

by Jillian Bromstead

April, 2011, Buffalo, NY – The Ira G. Ross Eye Institute and the Department of Ophthalmology, University at Buffalo/The State University of New York, announced the award of a 5-year, $1.95 million grant to conduct research on retinal development, with the long-term goal of improved treatment of retinal diseases.
 
The National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institute for Health (NIH), awarded the grant for a study of the interaction between two key proteins that assist in the formation and development of the retina. These proteins – POU4F2 and ISL1 – are also known as “transcription factors” and are found within the retina of the eye.
 
Xiuqian Mu, MD, PhD authored the grant application and is the lead research scientist for the project. Dr. Mu’s primary field of expertise is developmental biology, with particular emphasis on the retina. He earned his MD and PhD in China, coming to the United States to practice his research in 1994. His tenure with the UB Department of Ophthalmology and the Ross Eye Institute now approaches three years. Dr. Mu’s laboratories are located at the New York State Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Life Sciences, in the Buffalo-Niagara Medical Center.
 
According to Dr. Mu, despite significant progress, a clear understanding of the genetic mechanism underlying formation of the cellular diversity in the central nervous system is still lacking. The long-term goal is to understand how ISL1 and POU4F2 transcription factors function together to regulate gene expression globally and orchestrate the formation of the various retinal cell types.
 
This particular research focuses on retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). RGCs are essential to human vision, and damage to them is evident in various eye diseases such as glaucoma, optic neuritis, and ischemic optic neuropathy. The objective of this program is to understand how the expression of ISL1 and POU4F2 affects the initial formation and subsequent survival of retinal ganglion cells. The knowledge obtained from this study will help guide future development of preventive and therapeutic measures for these diseases.
 
Work has already begun, tapping into the Year 1 award of $389,000. From the Life Sciences laboratories in Buffalo, Dr. Mu explained that the research is now in the basic stage. “We need to focus on ganglion cells in the retina to understand the process,” he said. “For sight, visual signals are sent from these cells to the brain via the optic nerve.”
 
“Using lab studies based on mathematical models, we are striving to understand how these cells form during development in the embryo,” said Dr. Mu. “Long term, we can apply what we learn to develop therapeutic measures for diseases like glaucoma. If we understand enough about the cell itself under normal conditions, we can someday develop ways to create healthy replacements of damaged cells and reinsert them.”
 
The application for the grant was peer reviewed by a panel and awarded based on how it was scored. The NIH requires that annual reports be provided, with subsequent annual awards paid under the grant in a “non-competitive renewal.”