Yannis Paulus
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible blindness in the developed world. Most of the vision loss comes from choroidal neovascularization (CNV), the growth of abnormal, leaky blood vessels beneath the retina.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
age-related macular degeneration
wet AMD
choroidal neovascularization
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2027
What they work on
- Upgrade a combined photoacoustic microscopy, optical coherence tomography and fluorescence microscopy system to image rabbit eyes in real time, without harming the eye.
- Test whether young rabbits that respond well to anti-VEGF drugs develop capillary choroidal neovascularization while older, treatment-resistant rabbits develop arteriolar vessels, using multimodal imaging over time.
- Test whether ultraminiature chain-like gold nanoparticles that target integrins on abnormal vessels enable molecular-level imaging of how choroidal neovascularization responds to anti-VEGF therapy.
More about the research
Anti-VEGF drugs block vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a signal that drives blood vessel growth, and they have transformed treatment. Yet disease often persists despite treatment. After five years of anti-VEGF therapy, 20% of patients become legally blind. Testing new drugs is hard because few animal models show this treatment resistance, and there are few ways to track the disease over time without harming the eye.
Why it matters
Many people with wet macular degeneration keep losing vision despite repeated anti-VEGF injections. A safe imaging platform with gold nanoparticles and a treatment-resistant rabbit model could speed the development of new drugs for these patients. Imaging markers that predict response could also help guide treatment decisions earlier.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
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The school
Johns Hopkins University: 100 labs on PI Pages, $4.1B a year on research, 622 research doctorates a year.
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