| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Mr. CATRAL Kirk Patrick Carreon
Mr. CATRAL Kirk Patrick Carreon
MPhil Student
➲ ORCiD 0000-0001-6458-4875
Title of project:
TAM Expression Patterns in Aging Retinal Pigment Epithelial Cells and Its
Implication in the Development of Retinal Degeneration
Synopsis:
Retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells play an indispensable role in the
diurnal digestion of the ever-accumulating photoreceptor outer segments (POS).
New POS is produced on a daily basis to replace its distal ends containing
harmful oxidant products created from visual phototransduction. Central to this
digestion process are the TAM receptors – a group of three receptor tyrosine
kinases that are responsible in identifying apoptotic markers on the POS apical
villi and initiating the phagocytic digestion. It is well-established that
accumulation of these POS from gene knockout of TAM results in retinal
degeneration and eventual loss of vision as seen in retinal degenerative animal
models such as RCS rats. However, it is still unclear how the natural process
of aging affects the expression patterns of TAM and their associated signalling
pathways. My research focuses on providing a deeper understanding of how TAM
exerts its role in the RPE cell and molecular level, and to uncover the effects
of aging on TAM and their associated pathways. The long-term goal is to
identify novel molecular targets for pharmaceutical treatment of retinal
degenerations.
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