The retina plays a crucial role in the vision process by capturing light and transferring it to the brain as an electric signal where the images are formed. Thus, Retinal diseases are one of the main causes of vision impairment and blindness that can occur from diabetes-related side effects, glaucoma, retinal degeneration, and other eye […]
A14: Understanding Retinal Regeneration through the Analysis of Integrated Pathways of the Embryonic Chick
There is a substantial segment of the human population that suffers from visual impairments due to common retinal ailments such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and visual decline with age. However, humans lack the ability to regenerate damaged retinal tissue; therefore, research exploring gene regulation in regenerative animals can provide important insight to combat retinal […]
A10-P: Introduction to Neuroscience Class Project: Exploring Dr. Del Rio-Tsonis’ Regeneration lab
In the Seminar in Neuroscience course taught by Dr. Fernandes, the students split into groups to learn about the topics being researched in labs on Miami’s campus. We chose Katia Del Rio-Tsonis and studied her lab on retinal regeneration. Katia Del Rio-Tsonis’ lab focuses on retinal regeneration using mainly embryonic chicks in order to “understand […]
C02-P: Comparing the Gene Expression Profiles of Retinal Regeneration Induced by Various Factors in the Embryonic Chicken
The retina is one of the most important tissues in the human body. As the neural tissue responsible for sight, injury to the retina can lead to irreparable visual loss. Therefore, studying the process of retinal regeneration in vertebrates that are capable of doing so is important for understanding how the retina can be healed, […]
BRIV-05: Induction of Retina Regeneration by Interleukin-6
Millions of people throughout the world suffer from visual impairment due to retinal degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. These afflictions can lead to severe retinal damage which does not heal spontaneously. The embryonic chick has been used as a model organism to study retina regeneration in the hopes to find […]
CSI-04: Comprehensive Transcriptome and Methylome of the Developing Chick Retina
The embryonic chicken (Gallus gallus) has proved an integral model organism for studying retina development. Furthermore, the embryonic chicken demonstrates the remarkable ability to regenerate retina in response to injury. Despite these important traits, a complete understanding of gene regulation during chick retinal development is lacking. Epigenetic regulation is an important class of gene regulation, […]
C03: Exploring C3a Induced Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE) Reprogramming in the Embryonic Chick
Visual impairment due to retina diseases, such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retina detachment, impact over 4 million Americans each year. In the event that the retina is injured, inflammatory responses are activated, leaving a scar that hinders vision. Observations in model organisms, such as the embryonic chick, have shown that the complement component, […]
BRII-05: Retina regeneration is dependent on key neurogenic factors
Following injury, the embryonic chicken has the capacity to regenerate a neural retina via reprogramming of cells of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). After surgical removal of the retina, the injured RPE cells initially respond to injury by dedifferentiating to a more plastic state. However, in order to drive RPE to complete the regeneration process, […]
CSII-06: The Axolotl as a Model Organism for Retinal Regeneration
The retina is an eye structure that receives light from the environment and converts it to neural signals for the initiation of vision. When a human retina is damaged, a thin cell layer behind the retina – the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) – responds to the injury by creating a scar that results in loss […]