Affiliations

• School of Optometry

Research expertise

• Mechanisms of retinal development and neurodegeneration.
• Neurovascular coupling in health and pathology
• Translational approaches in vision sciences (drugs, targets).
• The retina as proxy for understanding the brain and other central nervous system mechanisms.
• Risk factors for blindness

Main research projects

• The contribution of homocysteine to the physiology of the nervous and vascular systems.
• The role of folate metabolism in age-related neurodegenerative diseases.
• The role of the perivascular and glial environment in the generation and degradation of vascular glycocalyx and its contribution to retinal development.
• Correlation of metabolites in blood and images of the retina with a hyperspectral camera.

Approaches used

• Use of in vitro models with primary and immortalized cells (endothelial, pericyte, glial, macrophage, epithelial) or animal models (mice) to study development and neurodegenerative pathological conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, central nervous system ischemia, age, etc.
• Use of the retina as a model (proxy) for treating the central nervous system via intravitreal injections.
• Techniques: confocal microscopy, electric cell-substrate impedance sensing, vascular permeability assessment, ELISA, Western blot, single-cell RNA-sequencing, etc.

Keywords

Vision, Retina and Brain, Neurovascular coupling