Discovering new treatment strategies to cure blindness caused by neurodegeneration.
Advancing the careers of future influencers in vision science and biomedical research.
NEWS:
May 16, 2023, Two neuroscience PhD students join the lab
Lee Sturgis and Zia L’Ecuyer joined the lab. They are both talented neuroscience PhD students. Welcome!
May 1, 2023, New 5-year R01 funded
Second R01 funded for the lab, “Functional plasticity in retinal degenerative disease”. This work will investigate how signaling downstream of photoreceptors is impacted during retinal degenerative disease. Important work for development of sight-saving therapies.
November 11, 2022, Presentation at UCI Distinguished Speaker Series
This talk highlights some of the most important directions of the laboratory in retinal plasticity and light signaling in the human macula. Recorded talk is available here.
June 9, 2022, New publication in Nature!
A lot of hard work from lab members was rewarded by a publication in Nature (606, 351-357 (2022)) “Revival of light signalling in the postmortem mouse and human retina” by Abbas, Becker, Jones, …, Hanneken & Vinberg. This work was led by Dr. Fatima Abbas and focused on developing a new method to study physiology of the human macula from organ donor eyes. Important collaborators include our next door neighbor Dr. Bryan Jones and Dr. Anne Hanneken from The Scripps Research Institute. Paper has been featured in several media articles, videos and podcasts: The John A. Moran Eye Center; ABC4; KSL; Nature podcast; WYPL-FM 89.3 Eye on Vision; EyewireTV,…
One person can’t change the world. In our laboratory we aim to provide students, postdocs and staff the environment and resources that allow them to thrive and become successful whether in academia, industry or even starting their own company. Let’s not forget that science should be fun. We should be excited to make discoveries while also taking care of ourselves. The physical and mental health of each lab member is one of our priorities. We can be productive in the long term only if we are both physically and mentally healthy.
University of Utah and Moran Eye Center are located in Salt Lake City but still very close to some of the nation’s largest national parks and outdoor activities like hiking, biking and skiing.
Dark adaptation and bright light vision
In aging, and specifically in AMD, one of the first noticeable effects on vision is the change in our ability to adapt to rapid decreases in ambient light. Patients, for instance, have often trouble driving at night when ambient light can change quickly (like the headlights from oncoming cars while driving). Photo credit: Matthew Michela.
On the news:
June 9, 2022: New paper published in Nature has been featured in several news outlets: ABC4; KSL; Nature podcast; WYPL-FM 89.3 Eye on Vision; EyewireTV,…
Sep 9, 2020: 5-year R01 from NIH/NEI grant awarded to study pigment bright light vision and dark adaptation in the human retina.
Dec 9, 2019: 4-year grant from Research to Prevent Blindness awarded to Vinberg lab to study dark adaptation mechanisms in the human macula.
Modulation of light signaling in the retina during retinal degenerative disease
Many blinding diseases are initially caused by photoreceptor degeneration and various strategies are being developed to restore vision including using stem cell and gene therapy approaches. However, it is now well known that photoreceptor degeneration triggers a remodeling process of the inner retina that may corrupt retinal signaling and make these therapies ineffective. Image modified from Leinonen et al. 2020, eLife.
On the news:
Nov 25, 2020: Research highlight about our research paper on the NIH/NEI news.
Nov 6, 2020: Frans’ radio interview by Vance Durbin at FM 89.3, Memphis, TX about the plasticity in the retina during photoreceptor degenerative disease.
Oxygen and light signaling in healthy and diabetic photoreceptors
Diabetic Retinopathy is a common complication in diabetic patients, and therefor one of the most common reasons for blindness in working-age adults in the USA. Traditionally Diabetic Retinopathy has been diagnosed by observing changes to blood vessels in the retina. Recently it has been discovered, however, that the function of photoreceptors is actually disrupted before these vascular changes occur and it is possible that this may drive the development of Diabetic Retinopathy. Image adopted from scEYEnce show how someone with relatively early Diabetic Retinopathy could perceive the world.