About Our Research
Frans Vinberg, PhD, works to understand mechanisms in the retina that enable vision over a wide range of light intensities and colors, and how these mechanisms are affected in major blinding diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR).
How Our Research Helps Patients
Millions of Americans are blind or severely visually impaired, and a majority of these blinding diseases affect the retina. Among the most common retinal diseases are AMD, DR, and retinitis pigmentosa (RP). In most cases, there is no treatment, and patients with these diseases can’t live independently or work.
The Vinberg Laboratory is using the latest technology and experimental approaches to understand how light signaling in the retina is affected in AMD, DR, and RP. This understanding is critical for developing new treatments to cure or slow visual impairment and blindness.
We use animal models of disease and human eye tissue from healthy as well as AMD- and DR-affected donors. We have established unique collaborations with Utah Lions Eye Bank, San Diego Eye Bank, and Life Sharing to get access to human donor eyes within 0–4 hours postmortem. These tissues allow us to study functional aspects of the human fovea and macula.
Research Interests
- Neuronal plasticity in retinal degenerative disease
- Ischemia-reperfusion injury in the retina
- Processing of visual signals in the human retina
- Gene editing in the human eye
- Drug testing platform in the light-responsive human eye
Learn More About Our Work and Partners
News from the Vinberg Laboratory
Human Eye Transplantation Grant
Frans Vinberg, PhD, is part of a project bringing together more than 40 scientists, doctors, and industry experts hand-picked from around the country to make sight-restoring whole eye transplants a reality.
Life after Death for the Human Eye
Vinberg Lab scientists are part of a team that revived light-sensing neuron cells in organ donor eyes and restored communication between them as part of a series of discoveries that stand to transform brain and vision research.
New 5-Year R01 Funded
The Lab in May 2023 received its second R01 grant, “Functional plasticity in retinal degenerative disease.” This work will investigate how signaling downstream of photoreceptors is impacted during retinal degenerative disease, important work for development of sight-saving therapies.
A New Light on Human Color Vision
Backed by a five-year, $2 million National Eye Institute Research Project Grant, the lab of Frans Vinberg, PhD, is seeking a deeper understanding of photoreceptors and how major blinding diseases, including age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, affect them.