Mammals are vulnerable to a number of diseases that cause blindness through permanent retinal cell loss. Previous work has shown that expression of the proneural transcription factor Ascl1 in mouse Muller glia can induce regeneration of bipolar neurons, but whether or not this process can recover vision in disease is unknown. In the Reh Lab, Brennan Mahoney is characterizing the process of regeneration and potential visual recovery in an animal model of Retinopathy of Prematurity; a leading cause of childhood blindness, which tests the feasibility of Muller glia-based reprogramming as a treatment for blindness.
