Gillian McLellan
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Medicine & Clinical Research
Glaucoma is a common blinding disease, usually treated by lowering pressure inside the eye. Most treatments require daily eye drops, and many patients, especially children and very elderly people, struggle to keep up with them.
- Fields
Medicine & Clinical Research
Genetics
Biomedical Engineering
- Topics
glaucoma
intraocular pressure
gene therapy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Optimize delivery of a feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV)-based lentiviral vector to trabecular meshwork cells, the eye's fluid-drainage tissue, in cultured feline cells and glaucomatous cat eyes, selecting vector and dose for efficiency, tissue specificity and safety.
- Design and optimize guide RNAs that direct KRAB-dCas9, a gene-silencing CRISPR tool that blocks genes without cutting DNA, to the promoters of TGFβ2 and its receptor TGFβR1 in feline trabecular meshwork cells.
- Run a small proof-of-concept study in cats with LTBP2-mutation glaucoma, measuring TGFβ2 and TGFβR1 by qPCR, immunoblotting or ELISA, and evaluating eye pressure, ocular toxicity and off-target effects.
More about the research
A gene therapy given once could provide lasting effects and target the disease's underlying cause. In glaucoma, high levels of the signaling protein TGFβ2 in the eye fluid (aqueous humor) cause scar-like stiffening of the trabecular meshwork, the tissue that drains this fluid. Poor drainage then raises intraocular pressure (IOP), the pressure inside the eye.
Why it matters
People with glaucoma often lose vision because frequent eye drops are hard to keep up with, a particular problem for children and very elderly patients. This work builds tools toward a one-time gene therapy injection that could lower eye pressure without daily drops. Because it targets TGFβ signaling common to glaucomatous eyes rather than a single mutation, it could apply broadly across glaucoma patients.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Mihyun Nam
University of Colorado Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus, CO·Medicine & Clinical Research
Compare levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs), sugar-damaged proteins, in trabecular meshwork tissue from primary open-angle glaucoma patients and healthy controls.
Carla Siegfried
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Medicine & Clinical Research
Compare gene expression in trabecular meshwork tissue from healthy donors and glaucoma patients at different stages, confirming key genes with RT-qPCR, in situ hybridization and Western blot, with focus on mitochondria and antioxidant defenses.
Suchismita Acharya
University of North Texas Health Science Center, TX·Pharmacology
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.
The school
University of Wisconsin-Madison: 91 labs on PI Pages, $1.9B a year on research, 854 research doctorates a year.
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