UCLA researchers have received an $8.9 million, five-year federal grant to investigate potential new targets for treating vision loss in humans by studying retinal cells in the light-sensing tissue at the back of the eye.
The grant, funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Eye Institute, supports UCLA Health neuroscientists Drs. Yi-Rong Peng, Greg Field and Alex Huk. They are collaborating with Dr. Shannon Boye at the University of Florida.
The eye’s retina contains many different types of cells, and it is thought that each cell type has its own role in helping us see detail, color, or motion. But what is not understood is how each cell type contributes to vision.
The researchers will engineer modified, harmless viruses that each deliver genetic instructions to one specific type of retinal cell. They will target 23 cell types, testing first in advanced mammalian models and then in human retinal tissue. This toolkit of viruses will be useful for basic science and for treating diseases. It will give scientists the ability to control these cells to better understand how each contributes to vision. The toolkit will also allow scientists and clinicians to develop improved and cell-type-specific treatments for many forms of retinal degeneration, including glaucoma and macular degeneration.
To help advance research globally, these tools and an online catalog of their findings will be shared with scientists worldwide.
The study is set to conclude in June 2031.
Peng is an assistant professor of the UCLA Health Department of Ophthalmology; Field is an associate professor-in-residence of the UCLA Health Ophthalmology; Huk is a professor-in-residence at the UCLA Health Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, professor-in-residence at UCLA Health Ophthalmology and director of the Fuster Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCLA.
