Enlightening Glaucoma Research
What We Do
Glaucoma is a leading cause of irreversible blindness—caused by the axonal injury and subsequent death of projection neurons called retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). The lab uses perturbative genetic approaches to comprehensively characterize the molecular pathways responsible for RGC death and axon degeneration. The team is developing novel small molecules—and gene therapy-based neuroprotective strategies—to attenuate these deleterious, cell-autonomous pathways. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a neuroprotective therapy to lessen vision loss in glaucoma and other optic neuropathies. In addition, the lab is working on the complementary goal of vision restoration through the use of transplanted stem cell-derived neurons.
Recent Publications
Inhibition of GCK-IV kinases dissociates cell death and axon regeneration in CNS neurons
Patel AK, Broyer RM, Lee CD, Lu T, Louie MJ, La Torre A, Al-Ali H, Vu MT, Mitchell KL, Wahlin KJ, Berlinicke CA, Jaskula-Ranga V, Hu Y, Duan X, Vilar S, Bixby JL, Weinreb RN, Lemmon VP, Zack DJ, Welsbie DS. Inhibition of GCK-IV kinases dissociates cell death and axon regeneration in CNS neurons — PNAS (2020), 117 (52) 33597-33607; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2004683117
Targeted disruption of dual leucine zipper kinase and leucine zipper kinase promotes neuronal survival in a model of diffuse traumatic brain injury
Welsbie, D.S., Ziogas, N.K., Xu, L. et al. Targeted disruption of dual leucine zipper kinase and leucine zipper kinase promotes neuronal survival in a model of diffuse traumatic brain injury. Mol Neurodegeneration 14, 44 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13024-019-0345-1