Investigating the role of Phosphatase and tensin homolog (Pten) in mammalian Mller glia quiescence
Description: "Vision loss caused by the onset of retinal degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in the industrialized world. While recent advances have been made in stem cell transplantation for vision repair, their effectiveness is limited and these technologies have not yet been translated to the clinic. An attractive alternate strategy is to activate resident stem cells for self-repair. Intriguingly, Müller glia, the major glial cell type in the retina, have stem cell properties in cold-blood vertebrates. However, the regenerative properties of Müller glia are latent in mammals. In fish and frogs, where Müller glia have a natural regenerative response, the first step in Müller glia activation is movement of the cell bodies into the layer where photoreceptors reside. This initiating event for regeneration is poorly understood at the molecular level. We previously found that mammalian Müller glia move in an injury-independent fashion in Phosphatase and tensin homolog (Pten) conditional knock-out retinas. Pten is an important signalling molecule that plays a role in cell survival. My hypothesis is that Pten lies at a critical pathway that blocks mammalian Müller glia from undergoing natural self-repair. To test this hypothesis I will be using biochemical and cellular assays to characterize Müller glia in Pten deleted retinas with and without induced injury. The insights form my work will advance our foundational understanding of retinal disease and direct future therapies for self-repair. Notably, targeting Müller glia for gene therapy can allow us to combat all forms of retinal diseases mediated not only by a loss of photoreceptors (age-related macular degeneration) but also by the loss of interneurons (inherited retinal diseases) and retinal ganglion cells (glaucoma)."
Amount: CA$17,500
Funding type: fellowship
Funder scheme: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2021-08-31
Investigator: Luke David
Institution: University of Toronto
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Funded outputs count: 0
Funder award ID: 171884_1
OpenAlex ID: G3686835218