David Pepperberg, PhD

University of Illinois at Chicago

Project: Exploring the use of nanotechnology to restore vision to damaged retinal cells.
Photoreceptor degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) destroy the ability of rod and cone photoreceptors to respond to light and to transmit visual signals to “post-photoreceptor” nerve cells in the inner layers of the retina.  However, the post-photoreceptor nerve cells themselves often appear to remain healthy in the diseased retina.  As a possible therapy for AMD and related retinal diseases, Dr. Pepperberg and his colleagues are working to develop implantable, nanoscale molecular structures that can directly stimulate the post-photoreceptor nerve cells in response to light, and thus bypass the non-functioning photoreceptors.  The immediate focus of their research is to develop prototypes of the desired molecular device, and to test the activities of these prototypes in two kinds of biological systems: (1) single, isolated cells that have been engineered to express a given type of postsynaptic receptor protein; and (2) retinal tissue obtained from animal models.  We anticipate that this research will identify structures ultimately suitable for testing in human subjects.