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.
Recent News
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Wednesday, November 6, 2024 - 10:45
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Tuesday, April 2, 2024 - 16:45
The lab is extremely proud of MD/PhD student Nathaniel K. Mullin (Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics) who successfully defended his dissertation, “Cellular and molecular consequences of genetic variants in inherited retinal disease”. Nate gave a fantastic presentation of his thesis work!
He is (center) pictured here with co-mentors Drs. Mullins (left) and Tucker (right). -
Monday, October 30, 2023 - 12:00
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.
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Friday, February 17, 2023 - 16:45
So proud of our lab's own Lauryn Renze, who was the Science, Health and Engineering 2023 Student Employee of the Year @uiowa! Way to go, Lauryn!
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Wednesday, February 15, 2023 - 15:00
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.
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Sunday, February 20, 2022 - 07:00
Excited to share our new #singlecell paper on choroidal #endothelial_cells and #macrophages in human eyes with/without #macular_degeneration! All data available at GEO and https://singlecell-eye.org.
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Sunday, January 23, 2022 - 15:30
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 -
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 - 14:30
Dr. Mullins's work was recently recognized at a ceremony at the Carver College of Medicine. This ceremony honored scientists with an h-index of 50 or more, meaning that at least 50 of their publications have been cited at least 50 times each.
https://medicine.uiowa.edu/celebrate-carver-college-medicine-faculty-apr...
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Wednesday, December 9, 2020 - 15:00
Research Associate and Lab Manager Miles Flamme-Wiese was honored in the 2020 Vector Laboratories Photo Contest when his submission was selected as one of ten contest winners. Winners were awarded with a canvas print of their photo and recognized on the Vector Laboratories website (https://vectorlabs.com/galleries/photo-contest-winners-2020).
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Thursday, November 14, 2019 - 12:00
In November, our laboratory published the first report detailing gene expression patterns of the human retinal pigment epithelium and choroid at the single cell level. We identified 11 categories (clusters) of cells, including melanocytes, Schwann cells and immune cells. Vascular endothelial cells showed distinct molecular profiles based on their location in the vascular tree, with unique capillary, arterial and venous patterns. In addition, eyes with macular degeneration showed higher expression of the gene RGCC, a potential target for future therapies.