An Interdisciplinary Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Blinding Eye Diseases
Kang Zhang, Ph.D.
UC San Diego
Abstract:
Blindness affects tens of millions of people worldwide. My lab has been studying the leading causes of irreversible visual impairment include age-related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. AMD is a multi-factorial disease that involves interaction of genetic and environmental influences. Allelic variants of genes encoding members of the alternative complement pathway, including CFH, and C3 strongly influence an individual’s risk of developing AMD. We and others demonstrated that HTRA1 gene also strongly impact AMD risk (Yang et al, Sceince, 2006; Jones, PNAS, 2012). We showed that variations in CFH, HTRA1, and C3 contribute to a majority of the genetic risk for AMD and are strongly predictive of advanced AMD (Chen et al, Arch Oph, 2010). We have used an interdisciplinary approach including nanoengineering to derive iPCS from patients from high risk genotypes for AMD and glaucoma, and differentiated them into retinal neurons in order to model disease phenotypes and study mechanisms in a cultured dish and in animal models. Stem cell therapy has the potential to revolutionize our treatment and approach to all blinding degenerative diseases of the eye (Zhang and Ding, NEJM, 2011). The recent advance in genetics and stem cell therapy in the eye will allow identification the high risk patients for customized intervention and treatment in the near future (Zhang, et al, Nature Review Drug Discovery, 2012).
Biosketch:
Kang Zhang obtained his M.D. with Magna Cum Laude honors from Harvard Medical School and MIT joint MD program and his PhD in genetics from Harvard University. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at Wilmer Eye Institute at Johns Hopkins University and his clinical retina fellowship at University of Utah. He is currently Professor of Ophthalmology and Human Genetics and Chief of Ophthalmic Genetics, and Founding Director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at University of California San Diego. His clinical and research focuses are on novel disease gene targets and treatment, gene and stem cell based therapies in age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal degeneration and glaucoma. He has numerous grants from National Institute of Health, and other foundations. Dr. Zhang has published or co-authored more than 130 peer reviewed manuscripts in top journals - covering a wide range of topics in genetics, molecular biology, stem cell, and clinical trials in ophthalmology. Among his honors include AAAS fellow, Chinese National Endowed Visiting Professorship, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Clinical Scientist Award in Translational Research; Lew R. Wasserman Merit Award and Senior Investigator Award from Research to Prevent Blindness; memberships in Association of American Physicians, American Society of Clinical Investigation, Macula Society; and Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions Clinician Scientist Award.