"OM" (aum) is an ancient Sanskrit sound symbolizing the infinite universe. The "gene-OM" or genome perfectly describes the billions of nucleotides and tens of thousands of genes contained in human DNA. After the massive effort to sequence and map the entire human genome, the suffix OM is now used throughout biology to describe similar large-scale scientific studies.
Our laboratory is interested in the phenomics, genomics, and proteomics of eye disease. Application and development of Omics technologies present new and interesting scientific challenges with incredible opportunities for advancing the treatment of human disease.
Proteomics
Many eye disease processes may be better characterized by protein expression rather than gene expression. Our projects include reagent development for high-throughput discovery of drugable targets.
Genomics
Microarrays representing several thousand genetic elements are used to fingerprint and characterize biological processes. Our projects and collaborations include understanding gene expression patterns during corneal inflammation, squamous cell carcinoma, retinal epithelial development, and neuromuscular synapse formation. High-throughput DNA sequencing is used to discover genes causing eye disease in the families we care for.
Phenomics
Characterizing eye disease phenotypes is critical to understanding and treating disease processes. Our projects include deployment of a high-throughput, scalable eye disease screen for discovery of clinically significant animal models and instrument development for high-throughput human eye disease phenotyping.