Photoreceptor Signal Transduction

     Also in Dr. Craft's group, Dr. Aimin Li has established a cell line with a to study the cone photoreceptor enriched signal transduction cascade phenotype. Ongoing studies include the use of the new Affymetrix Gene Chip technology to determine the genes that are regulated and modulated in differentiation that may be critical for the long term survival of this retinal cell line. Additional structure/function studies are ongoing by a neuroscience graduate student, Yushun Zhang, who is examining the signal transduction pathway of cone arrestin down regulation utilizing this system and molecular transfection of mutated and alternative spliced forms of arrestin. Future work will examine if these differentiated retinal cells will be useful in transplantation models to retain the cytoarchitecture of the degenerating retina.