Muayyad Al-Ubaidi, Ph.D.

Dept of Cell Biology, University of Oklahoma

Project:  To evaluate pharmacological and neurotrophic agents to rescue photoreceptor cells in RP animal models.
Summary: Since a greater proportion of retinal degenerative diseases are still of unknown causes, there exist the need to further study other aspects of normal retinal function. Furthermore, in most cases where the mutation is known, it is not known how that mutation has altered the function of the protein leading to the degenerative disease phenotype. Dr. Al-Ubaidi and his team chose to understand how modulations in a post-translational modification can alter retinal function. The gained knowledge will help them understand how a protein functions and therefore, how a mutation would alter that function leading to a blinding disease.  They will identify all sulfated retinal proteins and will choose those that have been involved in retinal disease for further study. They will then study how lack of sulfation altered that function. This will allow them to develop strategies, gene based or pharmacological, to counter the effects of the mutation.