Georgia Zarkada
University of Connecticut, CT·Biology·Early-career
In diseases such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, the eye grows too many new, abnormal blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis. This overgrowth causes most severe vision loss in the US, and current treatments do not work for every patient.
- Fields
Biology
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
- Topics
angiogenesis
ocular neovascularization
diabetic retinopathy
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Dissect the separate roles of endothelial SMAD2 and SMAD3, relay proteins of TGFβ signaling, in retinal blood vessel growth using conditional knockout mouse models.
- Identify genes controlled by SMAD2 or SMAD3 in endothelial cells with next-generation RNA sequencing, to find new targets that influence vessel function and could be treated.
- Define how Neuropilin 1 (NRP1) suppresses TGFβ signaling in endothelial cells, using conditional mouse models and in vitro approaches.
- Test whether selectively manipulating TGFβ pathway components can treat retinopathy in preclinical mouse models of vascular eye disease.
More about the research
One way to restrain vessel growth may run through TGFβ (transforming growth factor-β) signaling in endothelial cells, the cells that line blood vessels. TGFβ signaling can suppress the sprouting of new vessels. Inside the cell, its message is relayed by two proteins, SMAD2 and SMAD3, which are usually thought to work together. The candidate's unpublished data show that removing either one from endothelial cells has a different effect. This suggests that therapies may need to target one branch of the pathway selectively.
Why it matters
Abnormal blood vessel growth drives catastrophic vision loss in diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, and existing treatments fail some patients. Identifying which branches of TGFβ signaling to target, and new SMAD target genes, could yield additional treatment options for ocular neovascular disease.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yali Jia
Oregon Health & Science University, OR·Biomedical Engineering
Build a 1-MHz, 120° wide-field, high-resolution OCTA system with GPU real-time processing that captures reliable retinal blood-flow images in a single scan, without stitching images together.
Yannis Paulus
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biomedical Engineering
Upgrade a combined photoacoustic microscopy, optical coherence tomography and fluorescence microscopy system to image rabbit eyes in real time, without harming the eye.
Shervin Assassi
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Medicine & Clinical Research
Determine how much removing Irf7 specifically from fibroblasts reduces skin fibrosis, in bleomycin-induced and Tsk1 mouse models of dermal fibrosis.
The school
University of Connecticut: 31 labs on PI Pages, $434M a year on research, 360 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.