Jianhai Du
West Virginia University, WV·Biochemistry
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in older adults. An early sign is damage to the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a single layer of cells between the light-sensing photoreceptors and the choroid, the blood supply behind the retina.
- Fields
Biochemistry
Physiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
age-related macular degeneration
retinal pigment epithelium
retinal degeneration
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Trace how retinal pigment epithelium cells use the amino acid proline as fuel alongside glucose, using tracer methods and mass spectrometry.
- Determine how knocking out the RPE-enriched proline transporter, a newly identified AMD risk gene, affects proline use, RPE metabolism and visual function in mice.
- Examine the role of proline metabolism in diseased RPE and retinal degeneration, combining in vivo infusion, live imaging and proline transporter knockout mouse models.
- Build a conceptual framework describing how the RPE uses nutrients such as proline to maintain metabolic balance with the outer retina.
More about the research
The RPE controls how nutrients pass from the blood to the outer retina. Several lines of evidence suggest that altered RPE metabolism underlies AMD. Learning what fuels the RPE could help explain how the disease begins.
Why it matters
AMD is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, and altered metabolism in the retinal pigment epithelium is thought to underlie it. Showing what the RPE needs to survive, including its dependence on proline, could clarify the causes of AMD and other retinal degenerations. This knowledge could lay the foundation for developing new treatments.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Douglas Dean
University of Louisville, KY·Physiology
Characterize newly identified metabolic pathways that pass nutrients both ways between the RPE barrier layer and photoreceptors, by delivering labeled metabolites in living pigs and using artery-to-vein mass spectrometry.
Nancy Philp
Thomas Jefferson University, PA·Neuroscience
Test whether the retinal pigment epithelium keeps some glucose for its own biosynthetic and phagocytic activities, using RPE-iΔGlut1 mice that lack the glucose transporter GLUT1 in the RPE.
Jason Miller
University of Michigan, MI·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
Determine the composition of lipid droplets, small fat-storage compartments, in human retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cultures fed different lipid loads, using mass spectrometry.
The school
West Virginia University: 15 labs on PI Pages, $259M a year on research, 201 research doctorates a year.
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