Hulleman Lab

We aim to develop an understanding of the fundamental cellular and molecular mechanisms which underlie age-related and inherited ocular diseases.

The Hulleman Laboratory is committed to understanding and rectifying the underlying causes of inherited and idiopathic eye disorders caused by protein misfolding.

View Our Research

Video: About the Hulleman Lab

Tweets by HullemanLab

Lab News

December 2022

Sophie secures grad school interviews at top Texas schools

Congratulations to current Hulleman Lab Research Tech. II, Sophia DiCesare, on receiving early interviews at both UT Southwestern and UT Austin. Wishing her the best of luck, and fingers crossed for additional interviews in the near future!

November 2022

Hulleman Lab plasmids are now deposited with Addgene

We are happy to announce that we have begun to deposit plasmids with the nonprofit repository, Addgene. Initially, we have provided an enhanced ecDHFR destabilizing domain, C12 (described in Nakahara et al. 2022 ACS Chem. Biol.) and a FLAG-tagged myocilin construct with a C-terminal enhanced Gaussia luciferase (eGLuc2) capable of use in high-throughput screening (described in Nakahara et al. 2022 Curr. Eye Res.). More plasmids, including those encoding for fibulin-3 (EFEMP1) will also soon be available. Please click on the link below for more details.

https://www.addgene.org/John_Hulleman/

Meet the PI

John D. Hulleman, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology and Pharmacology

R͟e͟s͟e͟a͟r͟c͟h͟ I͟n͟t͟e͟r͟e͟s͟t͟s͟
Age-related macular degeneration
Chemical biology
Drug discovery/high-throughput screening
Extracellular matrix proteins
Inherited retinal dystrophies
Ocular protein misfolding diseases
Stress-responsive signaling

UT Southwestern Profile

Multifaceted approaches
We leverage our strengths in biochemistry, chemical biology, and drug discovery to develop an understanding of ocular disease caused by protein misfolding.

Unique assay development
We use a series of novel assays which allow us to gain insight into how proteins fold and misfold. One assay uses a luciferase isolated from the marine conepod, Gaussia princeps.

Insight into cures for rare diseases
We study rare, early-onset protein misfolding diseases such as Malattia Leventinese to better understand more prominent, but phenotypically similar diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration.

A focus on the extracellular matrix
The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a critical component for several retinal processes including support of the RPE and the photoreceptors. We are interested in understanding the importance of particular ECM proteins in the eye and how mutations in these proteins ultimately result in pathogenesis.