Tuesday, May 14, 2024
5/14/2024
Project Summary/Abstract This proposal presents a four-year Research Career Development program focused on understanding the mechanisms by which myopia increases glaucoma susceptibility. The candidate is currently a Clinical Instructor/PhD candidate with 80% protected research time, who was the first to complete the combined Residency/PhD program at the SUNY College of Optometry. The proposal builds on the candidate’s previous clinical and research experience in ocular disease, myopia, and glaucoma, and integrates her mentors’ unique fields of expertise. Under the guidance of her primary mentor and co-mentors Drs. Alexandra Benavente-Perez, Stewart Bloomfield, Miduturu Srinivas and Suresh Viswanathan, she will gain a deeper understanding of cellular and electrophysiology methodologies applied to this proposal. The research plan proposed will provide a distinctive set of multidisciplinary skills to develop the candidate into an independent investigator in the translational research field of myopic complications, in particular glaucoma. Myopia is projected to become a public health crisis that will affect half the world population by 2050, and is characterized by excessive eye growth that can affect the structure and function of vital cells that form the retinal neurovascular unit. Glaucoma is a multifactorial blinding disease estimated to affect more than 120 million people worldwide by 2040. While strong evidence confirms that myopic patients are at higher risk of glaucomatous degeneration, the mechanisms behind this association are unknown. Our current understanding of this relationship has two major gaps: 1) the longitudinal effect that myopic eye growth and stretch have on the cellular structure and function of ganglion cells, glia and vasculature remains unknown, and 2) there are no non- human primate (NHP) animal models that combine myopia and glaucoma to study how myopic progression predisposes the retina to glaucomatous remodeling. I hypothesize that myopia and glaucoma are linked via the effect that myopic stretch has on the neurovascular unit. The overall goals of this proposal are to define the longitudinal effect that myopia has on 1) retinal ganglion cells, 2) astrocytes and 3) associated vasculature, and their relationship with glaucoma susceptibility. This proposal is innovative because it focuses on studying longitudinally three key neurovascular elements affected by myopia, using a novel NHP experimental model with anatomy and physiology comparable to the human eye, and induced with myopia and subsequently glaucoma. This research will have a direct positive impact and is significant because it is expected to provide strong evidence of the unknown nature of the myopia-glaucoma relationship.
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