Suchismita Acharya
University of North Texas Health Science Center, TX·Pharmacology
Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness. High pressure inside the eye, called intraocular pressure (IOP), damages the optic nerve and gradually kills retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the nerve cells that carry visual signals to the brain.
- Fields
Pharmacology
Neuroscience
Biomedical Engineering
- Topics
glaucoma
intraocular pressure
neuroprotection
- Grants
- 1 known grant, last ended Aug 2026
What they work on
- Optimize the dose of SA-2 nanoparticles through toxicokinetic studies, which track drug levels and safety, and test how well they lower eye pressure in mice with Ad5.TGFβ2-induced ocular hypertension and in normal monkey eyes.
- Determine the biochemical mechanisms by which SA-2, a combined nitric oxide donor and SOD mimic that neutralizes free radicals, protects human trabecular meshwork cells and retinal ganglion cells from glaucoma-like damage.
- Test whether SA-2 nanoparticle eye drops prevent retinal ganglion cell death in a mouse optic nerve crush model of traumatic injury and a mouse ocular hypertension model of chronic injury.
More about the research
Current treatments only lower pressure, and about one in ten patients does not respond to the standard prostaglandin-based eye drops. No available drug protects the nerve cells themselves. Free radicals, damaging reactive molecules that build up as natural antioxidant enzymes decline with age, also kill RGCs and trabecular meshwork (TM) cells, the tissue that drains fluid from the eye.
Why it matters
Glaucoma affects tens of millions of people worldwide, and current drugs only lower eye pressure without protecting the optic nerve. A single eye drop that both lowers pressure and shields retinal nerve cells could offer a new non-prostaglandin treatment option, including for patients who do not respond to existing drugs. Dose findings from this work are intended to support further monkey studies and eventual human trials.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Raghu Krishnamoorthy
University of North Texas Health Science Center, TX·Pharmacology
Determine whether endothelin-1 (ET-1), a blood-vessel-tightening protein, acts through its ETA and ETB receptors to reduce mitophagy, the removal of damaged mitochondria, in retinal ganglion cells.
Karsten Gronert
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Neuroscience
Define which retinal cells make and respond to prostaglandin D2 (PGD2), a fat-derived signaling molecule, in healthy retina and how raised eye pressure (ocular hypertension) shuts this pathway down.
Shahid Husain
Medical University of South Carolina, SC·Pharmacology
Determine how class I and IIb histone deacetylases (HDACs), enzymes that tighten DNA packaging, contribute to retinal ganglion cell death in rats with ocular hypertension (high eye pressure).
The school
University of North Texas Health Science Center: 4 labs on PI Pages, $110M a year on research, 16 research doctorates a year.
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