Bo Chen, PhD

• 2013
  Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences
  

Neural Degeneration and Regeneration in the Mammalian Retina

We are currently recruiting motivated postdoctoral researchers and students to join our research adventures. The main research interests of my laboratory focus on the mechanistic and therapeutic studies of neurodegenerative diseases in the retina resulting in vision impairment and blindness. We study signaling pathways and gene expression network in retinal neurons in normal and diseased conditions, with an ultimate aim to save vision. Neuroprotection and neuroregeneration are the two main strategies we use to prevent the death of existing neurons or to generate new neurons. 1. For neuroprotection, we investigate molecular mechanisms underlying the degeneration of photoreceptors, the primary sensory neurons that mediate the first step in vision, and ganglion cells, the output neurons of the retina. An in-depth understanding the signaling pathways that are perturbed in a diseased retina will facilitate the design of therapeutic strategies to protect photoreceptors and ganglion cells through modulation of the components of the affected pathways. 2. For neural regeneration, we examine the intrinsic signaling pathways and transcription control in Müller glial cells, the primary glial cell type in the retina, in order to reprogram them in vivo to generate adult retinal stem cells that are capable of differentiating to retinal neurons. 3. In addition, my laboratory is also actively exploring strategies to promote axon regeneration using optic nerve crush to model CNS (central nervous system) injury.