Allison Spillane
Department of Pediatrics - Neonatalogy
Graduate student
Service Memorial Institute
470 N Charter St
Madison, WI 53706
Biography
Advisor: Bikash Pattnaik, PhD
Keywords: Leber’s congenital amaurosis, ion channelopathy, genetics
Education
BS 2018, Biology-Biomedical Science, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, CO
Research
Ms. Spillane’s research focuses on a disease called Leber’s Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), in which several different gene mutations lead to blindness in children. These mutations are located on a gene encoding for a potassium channel that is important for normal retinal pigmented epithelium (RPE) function in the eye. The goal of her research is to investigate the safety and efficacy of a gene therapy designed to treat LCA mutations and provide a treatment for these patients.