Daniel Enrique Maidana
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Neuroscience·Early-career
In retinal detachment, the light-sensing layer at the back of the eye pulls away from its support tissue. It is an eye emergency that can strike anyone from newborns to adults.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Microbiology & Immunology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
retinal detachment
photoreceptor cell death
microglia
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through May 2027
What they work on
- Define the role of microglia, the retina's resident immune cells, in clearing dead photoreceptors early after retinal detachment, using an inducible conditional deletion model.
- Dissect how different states of microglia and blood-derived monocytes/macrophages contribute to photoreceptor death in late retinal detachment.
- Determine whether microglia or infiltrating macrophages can be harnessed to rescue photoreceptors from death after retinal detachment.
More about the research
It can cause permanent blindness because photoreceptors, the cells that detect light, die. Immune cells rush into the injured retina, but whether they help or harm remains unclear. Better knowledge of their roles could point to treatments that protect sight.
Why it matters
Retinal detachment can cause permanent vision loss even after the retina is repaired, because photoreceptors die. Clarifying which immune cells help or harm photoreceptors could reveal targets for neuroprotective treatments. Such treatments could preserve vision in patients of all ages who have this eye emergency.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Tylor Lewis
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Neuroscience·Early-career
Comprehensively characterize retinal degeneration in global ADAM9 knockout mice, focusing on the interface between photoreceptor outer segments and the retinal pigment epithelium.
Steven Roth
University of Illinois Chicago, IL·Medicine & Clinical Research
Produce engineered extracellular vesicles from mesenchymal stem cells that carry extra miR-424 or miR-146b, small RNAs that dampen gene activity, to test whether they reproduce the protection seen in vesicles from low-oxygen-treated stem cells.
Scott McPherson
University of Minnesota, MN·Microbiology & Immunology
Define how retinal microglia, especially the subset that acts as dendritic cells, present retinal self-antigens to T cells and drive autoimmune disease, using R161H mice with transgenic tracking and depletion of dendritic cells and microglia.
The school
University of Illinois Chicago: 42 labs on PI Pages, $532M a year on research, 359 research doctorates a year.
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