Our lab recently published a new study involving 99 human donor eyes in which degenerating blood vessels were measured in eyes with healthy aging, early stage macular degeneration, and late stage dry macular degeneration (geographic atrophy). We observed a progressive degeneration of choriocapillaris vessels with advancing macular degeneration, and this blood vessel loss occurred in advance of death of other cell types.

In a recent paper by Voigt et al, we studied how gene expression is altered in focal areas of pathology by performing spatial RNA sequencing on a human donor eye with macular neovascularization as well as a healthy control donor. Then, we performed differential expression to identify genes enriched within the area of macular neovascularization and used deconvolution algorithms to predict the originating cell type of these dysregulated genes.

A number of ocular diseases involving the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) are known to selectively injure the central region of the retina, but the molecular behavior of RPE cells from different regions is not well understood.

Our lab recently published a new report on the role of local synthesis of the Complement Factor H gene product in protecting choroidal endothelial cells from deposition of the complement MAC complex, a major source of cellular injury in AMD. Kelly used immortalized choroidal endothelial cells and induced pluripotent stem cells to determine that local expression of the Factor H protein is sufficient to increase cellular protection.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/path.5867