Tylor Lewis
University of Alabama at Birmingham, AL·Neuroscience·Early-career
Seeing depends on a close partnership at the back of the eye. Photoreceptors, the light-sensing cells of the retina, sit against the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a supporting cell layer.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
retina
photoreceptors
interphotoreceptor matrix
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Comprehensively characterize retinal degeneration in global ADAM9 knockout mice, focusing on the interface between photoreceptor outer segments and the retinal pigment epithelium.
- Analyze the composition of the interphotoreceptor matrix in ADAM9-deficient retinas, both qualitatively and quantitatively, using high-end proteomic techniques.
- Test the hypothesis that ADAM9 acts as a protease that cuts interphotoreceptor matrix components, using genetically modified ADAM9 mouse models.
- Test whether ADAM9 acts as a cell adhesion molecule linking photoreceptors to the RPE, and identify which of these cell types drives ADAM9-related pathology.
More about the research
Between them lies the interphotoreceptor matrix, a gel-like material that holds the two together. Mutations in the gene ADAM9 cause cone-rod dystrophy, a form of photoreceptor degeneration that leads to vision loss in people and dogs. Earlier work in mice and dogs showed that losing ADAM9 disrupts the contact between photoreceptor outer segments and the RPE. Preliminary data for this project show that matrix material builds up at this interface.
Why it matters
People and dogs with ADAM9 mutations lose vision from cone-rod dystrophy, and no treatment exists. Learning how ADAM9 loss damages photoreceptors could guide future therapies for these patients. Because the interphotoreceptor matrix helps the retina stay attached and healthy, the findings may also inform research on retinal detachment and some forms of retinitis pigmentosa.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Nancy Philp
Thomas Jefferson University, PA·Neuroscience
Test whether the retinal pigment epithelium keeps some glucose for its own biosynthetic and phagocytic activities, using RPE-iΔGlut1 mice that lack the glucose transporter GLUT1 in the RPE.
James Hurley
University of Washington, WA·Biochemistry
Determine how daily cycles shape glycogen metabolism, the stored-sugar reserve, in RPE/choroid tissue, using ex vivo and in vivo measurements of metabolic flux and energy stores.
Ross Collery
Medical College of Wisconsin, WI·Neuroscience
Identify the signaling pathways and genes whose activity depends on STRA6 in the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), by inactivating STRA6 and its partner RBP4 with CRISPR/Cas9 in zebrafish and in cultured human RPE cells.
The school
University of Alabama at Birmingham: 45 labs on PI Pages, $866M a year on research, 166 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
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