Congratulations to MERI Member Prof. Curtis Brandt (DOVS), who has been awarded a four-year R01 grant from the National Eye Institute to support his research in preventing herpes-related blindness. HSV-1 corneal infection can lead to loss of sensory nerve axons in the tissue resulting in neurotrophic keratopathy. There are several negative outcomes to the nerve loss including failure to heal corneal ulcers which contribute to vision loss. The goal of the project is to determine the mechanism of the axonal degeneration which could lead to a therapeutic strategy to preserve sensory nerve function. The findings from the project could also impact other conditions that result in the loss of axons. The project takes advantage of a novel set of recombinant HSV-1 viruses, developed in Dr. Brandt’s laboratory, that cause varying degrees of disease severity and a novel neuronal cell culture system used in the laboratory of Dr. Donna Neumann.
Resubmission funding for the R01 grant came in part from a Grant Summit Program (GSP) Award. The award was created to increase support for UW–Madison vision research by facilitating successful resubmissions of competitive federal grant applications.
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