Research Methods in Retinal Degeneration

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Hossein Ameri

University of Southern California, Keck School of Medicine, USC Roski Eye Institute

Hossein Ameri is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the USC Roski Eye Institute of the University of Southern California and the Director of the USC Retinal Degeneration Center. Dr. Ameri graduated from University of Medical Sciences in and received ophthalmology and vitreoretinal surgery training in Ireland, where he was also an official lecturer at the University College- and a founding member of the Irish Retinal Prosthesis Group. Dr. Ameri then moved to Los Angeles for a research fellowship and became an Assistant Professor of Research Ophthalmology at the Doheny Eye Institute of the University of Southern California. He repeated an ophthalmology residency and earned a PhD in neuroscience and cell biology from the University of Texas Medical Branch, and completed a second vitreoretinal surgery fellowship at the USC Roski Eye Institute. His research experience includes preclinical studies of the Argus II retinal prosthesis, wide-field retinal prosthesis, retinal angiogenesis, retinal vascular disease, and ocular ultrasound. Dr. Ameri holds several patents and has numerous publications. Currently, he carries out basic and clinical research on retinal degeneration and retinal vascular disease, and his lab is focused on developing treatments for acquired and inherited retinal diseases through gene therapy. In particular, he is interested in developing non-viral vector delivery methods and long-term treatments that can be delivered through simple eye injections.

Collection Overview

Retinal degeneration is a broad term that applies to both acquired and inherited retinal diseases. While age-related macular degeneration is the leading cause of irreversible vision loss in developed countries, inherited retinal degeneration is a rare entity composed of a heterogenous group of diseases that may ultimately lead to total blindness. Research in this field has steadily grown in the past few years in order to find a cure for these conditions. In particular, therapeutic approaches have moved beyond traditional pharmacological treatments, and in the past two decades, gene therapy and stem cell transplantation approaches have gained significant popularity. With the success of gene therapy in treating a form of inherited retinal degeneration, the race to find a treatment for other forms has intensified. Similarly, advances in stem cell transplantation for age-related macular degeneration have increased interest in understanding cell-to-cell interactions between donor and host tissue.

The growth of support from commercial labs has enabled more investigators to carry out sophisticated research; however, there are numerous experiments that cannot be outsourced. More detailed knowledge of available methods may help to choose the best and most practical approach for conducting research. This Methods Collection aims to share the expertise of investigators and their methods in studying mechanisms of disease and therapeutic approaches for degenerative diseases of the retina.