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Visualizing Gene Expression to Understand Lens Regeneration
The retina plays a crucial role in our vision by transferring the light taken in, to the images one views; however, when the retina is damaged this ability is affected causing blindness.
Visualizing Gene Expression to Understand Lens Regeneration
Mentors: Jose Raul Perez-Estrada, Ph.D., Katia Del Rio-Tsonis, Ph.D.
The retina plays a crucial role in our vision by transferring the light taken in, to the images one views; however, when the retina is damaged this ability is affected causing blindness. The retina, like the majority of structures within the body, cannot regenerate in humans. However, organisms such as newts and chicken embryos can regenerate their retina (Lu et al, 2021). Chicken embryos regenerate their retina through reprogramming of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) at embryonic day 4 (E4) with the addition of fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2); however, this ability is lost at embryonic day 5 (E5). Based on recent transcriptome analysis of E4 and E5 RPE at different conditions, activation of the Hippo/YAP/YAZ pathway prevents the RPE cell proliferation suppressing its neurocompetence. Recent findings showed that inhibiting the YAP/YAZ and Notch signaling pathways allows the reprogramming of Muller glia cells into retina cells. Therefore, in this project we will investigate whether the pharmacologic inhibition of the YAP/YAZ pathway and Notch signaling will enable the neurocompetence of the E5 RPE and allow its cell reprogramming into the neural retina.
