Chief Supervisor

Prof. LIN Bin

Project Title

Synopsis

Glaucoma is a disease in which retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the neurons that connect the eyes to the brain, die, leading ultimately to blindness. However, little is known about the mechanisms responsible for the development of glaucoma. There are currently no effective treatments available for halting glaucoma progression. Increased intraocular pressure (IOP) is the major risk factor for developing glaucoma, but the molecular mechanisms by which elevated IOP leads to RGC death is unknown. My work is to identify the underlying mechanisms that link elevated IOP to glaucomatous RGC death, and will focus on the mechanical signal transduction in this pathological process. Hopefully, the findings from this study could help us further understand the pathogenesis of glaucoma in a mechanobiological perspective, and might provide us with novel targets in preventing RGC apoptosis induced by excessive IOP elevation for glaucoma, an incurable eye disease.