Why and how do eyes become myopic or short-sighted?
Christine Wildsoet, Professor
Optometry
Closed. This professor is continuing with Spring 2024 apprentices on this project; no new apprentices needed for Fall 2024.
Myopia or short-sightedness has become the focus of increasing concern as its prevalence steadily climbs. Figures of around 90% have been recorded for some Asian university student populations and a recent US-based study also reported a dramatic increase in the prevalence of myopia, especially among AfroAmericans. Myopia is a problem of the eye growing too long for its optical power, with a typical onset around adolescence. The posterior vitreous chamber of the eye is the site of this growth and in its extreme, it carries an increased risk of retinal detachment and other complications that may lead to blindness. Treatments are urgently needed to prevent myopia and/or slow its progression, but these are only possible with a better understanding of how eyes grow and myopia develops. There is now little doubt that the increasing prevalence of myopia is a consequence of environmental factors. The project being offered largely involves the chick as an animal model for myopia.
Work with animal models offer the most promise of developing successful treatments. However, there is increasing pressure to develop tissue and cell culture-based paradigms for use in such research. My lab is involved in both in vivo and in vitro animal studies. As an apprentice in my laboratory, you would be required to commit a minimum of 1 day a week in equivalent hours, which would be distributed across the week according to the current needs of the project and your other class commitments.
Animal and tissue/cell culture-based projects: Chickens have proved to be a very reliable model to work with in this context, providing important leads in this research field. However, the cartilaginous outer scleral wall of the chick eye contrasts with the less rigid fibrous wall of mammalian eyes, introduces likely differences in their biomechanical properties, with implications for how eyes enlarge. On-going projects will make use of both chicks and guinea pigs as animal models to study the mechanisms underlying eye growth regulation. We are interested particularly in how the eye decodes the direction of out-of-focus images, and how growth signals generaetd by the retina, the seeing layer of the eye, are relayed across the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) to the sclera, the outer wall of the eye. One of the longer term aims of this research is to develop anti-myopia therapies, using gene manipulations or drugs targeting the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE).
Student apprentices should have a biological background. Projects being offered addressing the effects of visual manipulations on local ocular molecular signal pathways regulating and are best suited to those with strong biochemical/molecular biological/bioengineering backgrounds and interests. Apprentices should expect to be involved in all aspects of our lab's research, including lab maintenance and monitoring of animals, as well as tasks specific to their individual project. Data analysis is a component of most projects (e.g. ultrasonography data).
Mentoring: Students are mostly paired with more senior undergraduate students and/or clinician scientists for their project work. Dr Yan Zhang, a senior clinician scientist inn our Berkeley Myopia research group, is leading this research. As principal investigator, I see my role as facilitating opportunities for undergraduate students to learn about scientific methodology, to improve their critical analysis skills, to equip them with some new hands-on skills, and perhaps most importantly, to foster their interest and enthusiasm for research.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Dr Yan Zhang, Staff Researcher
Role: Students involvement will be at a level commensurate with their previous experience and knowledge. As they become more familiar with the techniques used in their assigned project, having received appropriate training as necessary, and have demonstrated competence and understanding of their assigned research, they can expected to be more engaged at a hands-on level.
Qualifications: Apprentices who are majors in molecular cell biology, integrative biology and bioengineering generally make good fits with this research. Sophomore and juniors are generally targeted, to allow time for initial training and subsequent active hands-on engagement in research, which is more rewarding for everyone. Some past apprentices have taken up the opportunity to enroll in research honors in the senior year.
Day-to-day supervisor for this project: Dr Yan Zhang, Staff Researcher
Hours: to be negotiated
Related website: http://wildsoetlab.berkeley.edu/
Related website: https://optometry.berkeley.edu/people/christine-f-wildsoet-od-phd/