Of Note

Catherine Cheng receives NEI grant to study cataracts

Catherine Cheng, PhD, a staff scientist in Velia Fowler’s lab, has received a grant of nearly $500,000 from the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute to study the role of Eph-ephrin bidirectional signaling in eye lens transparency and homeostasis.

Cheng’s research focuses on the pathways in cells that can contribute to cataracts. Despite decades of study, cataracts, defined as any opacity in the lens, remain the leading cause of blindness in the world, and there are no non-surgical treatments to prevent or delay cataracts.

Her two-year project will focus on revealing the roles of the proteins EphA2 and ephrin-A5 in maintaining lens transparency and determining the mechanisms for cataractogenesis when Eph-ephrin signaling is disrupted. Cheng and her colleagues hope to shed light on the signaling pathways in the lens that are important maintaining transparency as we age.

“This data will provide a better understanding of coordinated signaling mechanisms for maintaining homeostasis in normal lenses, which may lead to the development of new non-surgical approaches to delay or prevent age-related cataract formation,” writes Cheng in her project description.

The number of the grant is 1R21EY027389.

Send comments to: press[at]scripps.edu

cathy cheng
Catherine Cheng, PhD, will lead the new project at TSRI.

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Of Note

Catherine Cheng receives NEI grant to study cataracts