Recent News

  • Thursday, May 9, 2019 - 15:30

    Postdoctoral Research Scholar Kelly Mulfaul was honored with the 2019 Members-in-Training (MIT) Outstanding Poster Award in the Retinal Cell Biology category for her poster, “Choroidal Endothelial Cells Synthesize CFH Locally to Protect Against Complement Mediated Injury” at the annual meeting of the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

  • Wednesday, October 31, 2018 - 15:00

    Our lab recently published a paper describing the identification of compounds that protect the cells of the choroid (the vascular system that supports rod and cone photoreceptor cells) from injury by the complement system, a major source of cell injury in age-related macular degeneration.

    Screening over 1,000 FDA approved compounds led to the identification of a class of molecules that provide a benefit to choroidal cells in culture, with the prospect that these (or related) compounds may be helpful in humans with macular degeneration.

  • Tuesday, April 3, 2018 - 14:30

    Dr. Robert Mullins was honored with the Inaugural RPB David F. Weeks Award for Outstanding AMD Research from the Association of University Professors in Ophthalmology on January 26th, 2018 during the group's 2018 Annual Meeting in Austin, Texas.

  • Thursday, January 18, 2018 - 14:15

    In collaboration with our colleagues in the University of Iowa Institute for Vision Research, we recently published a series of human retinal organ culture experiments to study the optimal type of viral vectors for transducing human retina. This study was published in Human Gene Therapy (Wiley et al., 2018, http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/hum.2017.179). Photo courtesy of Dr. Luke Wiley.

  • Monday, May 15, 2017 - 09:45

    The lab congratulates Dr. Kathleen Chirco, who received her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology with the dissertation, "Mechanisms of Pathophysiology and Methods for Regeneration of the Choriocapillaris in Age-Related Macular Degeneration" at The University of Iowa Graduate College Commencement on May 12th, 2017.

  • Thursday, May 11, 2017 - 09:00

    In order to study endothelial cells of the choriocapillaris (CEC) replacement strategies we have generated a 3D choroid scaffold using a novel decellularization method in human RPE/choroid tissue. To our knowledge, this is the first report describing decellularization of human RPE/choroid, as well as recellularization of a choroid scaffold with CECs.

  • Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - 15:30

    The Iowa Lions Eye Bank recently published an article in their newsletter that highlighted the research being conducted in the Chorioretinal Degenerations Laboratory, specifically focusing on the Infant Globe Project.
    http://www.iowalionseyebank.org/Articles/ViewArticle?article=2030

  • Thursday, October 6, 2016 - 08:15

    A single nucleotide polymorphism in the complement factor H (CFH) gene is associated with an increased risk for the development of age-related macular degeneration.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27376713

  • Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 14:15

    In age-related macular degeneration, activation of the membrane attack complex (MAC) is deposited on the aging choriocapillaris endothelial cells (ECs). In a recent publication in the Journal of Pathology (Zeng et al., http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26564985 ) we demonstrated colocalization of MAC with choroidal ECs at the ultrastructural level. We also sought to determine whether we can model this injury in cultures of ECs exposed to MAC.

  • Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 14:15

    The formation of the membrane attack complex (MAC) is increased in normal aging and in AMD (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4215023/). In order to determine whether MAC accumulation is specific to the eye, we compared the abundance of MAC across 19 different human tissues.The choriocapillaris was the only tissue with high levels of the MAC, which was not detected in any of the 38 additional samples from 19 tissues.

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