Melinda Duncan
University of Delaware, DE·Biology
Cataract surgery restores sight to millions of people by removing the eye's clouded lens and implanting an artificial one. To anchor that implant, surgeons must leave behind the lens capsule, a thin membrane that wraps the lens.
- Fields
Biology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
- Topics
cataract
posterior capsular opacification
lens epithelial cells
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Apr 2030
What they work on
- Determine how fibronectin, a structural matrix protein made by lens cells after surgery, maintains lens epithelial cells as scar-producing myofibroblasts, using lens injury models in which fiber cells have been removed.
- Test the contribution of protease inhibitors and other matrix regulators, which RNA sequencing showed rise sharply after lens injury, to establishing and sustaining the fibrotic matrix behind posterior capsular opacification.
- Operate the Delaware INBRE network to deliver mentored summer research internships for undergraduates, data science training and consulting, seed grants for new investigators, and shared access to 20 core facilities statewide.
More about the research
Lens epithelial cells cling tightly to this membrane, so some always survive the operation, and they behave as if healing a wound: they divide and convert into myofibroblasts, scar-producing cells. Modern implants push these cells to the edge of the capsule, but years later they can migrate back into the line of sight, wrinkle the capsule and deposit scar material, clouding vision again in a condition called posterior capsular opacification. One grant asks what keeps those scar cells going; a second grant leads a statewide biomedical research network in Delaware.
Why it matters
Scarring behind the implanted lens can cloud vision again years after otherwise successful cataract surgery. Understanding how fibronectin and matrix-regulating proteins keep scar-forming cells alive could guide strategies to prevent this complication and improve long-term visual outcomes for cataract patients. The statewide network separately widens access to biomedical research training and shared instrumentation for Delaware students and investigators.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Corey Smith
University of North Dakota, ND·Education Research
Provide on-campus biomedical research opportunities for undergraduates at North Dakota's primarily undergraduate institutions, serving as a pathway into health research careers.
Edward Sander
University of Iowa, IA·Biomedical Engineering
Determine whether secreted factors from human adipocyte-lineage cells inhibit, induce or reverse the conversion of fibroblasts into scar-forming myofibroblasts, using a myofibroblast conversion assay with fractionation, proteomics and inhibition/add-back experiments.
Michael Garrett
University of Southern Mississippi, MS·Biochemistry
Provide Mississippi INBRE investigators with consultation and technical services in multiomics, CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, bioenergetic cell assays and imaging through five shared core facilities.
The school
University of Delaware: 22 labs on PI Pages, $466M a year on research, 298 research doctorates a year.
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