Research

Whole mouse brain after tissue clearing and imaged under a light sheet microscope. Fluorescent dye was injected in each eye, which enables visualization of the optic pathway in the brain.

Mouse optic nerves with regenerating retinal ganglion cell axons.

Flat-mounted mouse retina showing retinal ganglion cells with YFP and osteopontin expression. Osteopontin expression marks a subpopulation of RGCs known as alpha type RGCs.

Schematic summary of single nucleus RNAseq studies that our lab performs on various brain and eye regions.

Flat-mounted mouse retina isolated from a transgenic tdTomato reporter mouse. Cells in red are neurons that express melanopsin protein.

My lab's research is focused on the following areas:

Promoting Nerve Regeneration

In general, injured axons in the central nervous system fail to regenerate. There are yet no therapies for promoting axon regeneration once the damage is done. In recent years much progress has been made in identifying key genes within neurons that block axon regeneration. Decoding the intricate mechanisms that govern the process of axon regeneration and developing potential therapeutic strategies for axon regeneration is of paramount importance in treating traumatic CNS injuries as well as neurodegenerative diseases.

Preventing Neuronal Death

In the central nervous system, aberrant neuronal death is a common feature of neurodegenerative diseases like stroke, Alzheimer's, and glaucoma and traumatic injury (e.g. spinal cord and traumatic brain). Currently, there are no effective neuroprotective interventions available for treating these conditions. Using in vivo models, gene therapy and mouse genetics, our lab seeks to elucidate the neuronal death pathway.

Axon Guidance and Target Selection

Correct pathfinding and target selection by the growing axons represent critical steps toward establishing proper neural circuits. Our lab is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying these processes during development as well as after injury in adults. In particular, we focus on the visual system and examine how the projection neurons in the retina, the retinal ganglion cell axons find their targets and form synapses in the brain.