Dr. Elda Rueda from Baylor College of Medicine awarded $70,000 Knights Templar Eye Foundation Grant for Retinogenesis Research

Dr. Elda Rueda from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX was awarded a grant for $70,000 the research entitled: Elucidating the Role of Mitochondrial Electron Transport Chain in Retinogenesis

Children whose vision is affected by inherited traits, environmental injury, infection and/or drug toxicity, are more prone to have a poor quality of life, require more medical care and are more likely to die in childhood than children with normal vision. Vision loss is often the result of loss of retinal neurons. Stem cell transplantation therapies are a promise strategy to reestablished retinal function. In order for cell replacement therapies to be effective, we must first understand the factors that are required for maintaining retinal progenitor cell (RPC) proliferation and multipotency, as well as those driving their differentiation into functional neurons.

Previous studies including those in our lab have demonstrated that mitochondrial function is an integral regulator of the cell cycle and cell fate. In preliminary studies Dr. Rueda shows that a metabolic switch occurs during the transition from a proliferative RPC to a postmitotic retinal neuron. This indicates that unless RPCs acquired a mitochondrial driven oxidative metabolic state, they remain within the cell cycle compromising the neural developmental program. The specific factors regulating a metabolic reprogramming and cell cycle exit are tightly coupled but unknown.

Dr. Rueda hopes to determine how the RPC cell cycle machinery interfaces with ETC- to drive cell cycle exit and neural differentiation. This data will provide an essential molecular entry point from which to further develop methods to promote retinal regeneration through stem cell transplantation and likely have significant influence on the field of retinal regenerative medicine.