Aparna Lakkaraju, PhD
Position title: Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, University of California, San Francisco
Email: Aparna.Lakkaraju@ucsf.edu
Phone: (415) 502-9670
Address:
University of California, San Francisco
10 Koret Way, Room 233
San Francisco, CA 94143-0730
Education
BS 1994, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kakatiya University, Warangal, India
PhD 2001, Pharmaceutics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Post-Doctoral Research 2002-2008, Cell Biology & Ophthalmology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Research Interests
Work in Dr. Lakkaraju’s laboratory focuses on understanding the cellular basis of retinal diseases like age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of progressive vision loss among older adults worldwide. Her research group studies the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a monolayer of post-mitotic epithelial cells that forms the outermost layer of the retina and performs many functions that are indispensable for vision. It is now believed that over a lifetime, damage to the RPE coupled with genetic and environmental factors predispose a person towards developing AMD. However, AMD is a multifactorial disease, and elucidating the cascade of events that leads to vision loss has proven elusive.
Previous work by Dr.Lakkaraju showed that RPE cells accumulate high levels of cholesterol under conditions that recapitulate certain features of AMD. Cholesterol homeostasis within cells is tightly controlled because excess cholesterol interferes with intracellular trafficking of proteins and lipids and inhibits basic housekeeping functions like lysosomal degradation, autophagy, and secretion. Chronic disruption of these functions critically damages cell health.
Dr. Lakkaraju’s current research has two main goals: 1) to elucidate the pathogenesis of retinal degenerations at the cellular level using biochemistry, cell biology, and high-speed live microscopy of healthy, aging, and diseased RPE (from human donors, non-human primates, rodents, and pigs); and 2) to use this information to identify novel drug targets and investigate whether existing drugs like statins can help preserve RPE and retinal health in aging and AMD.
Publications
PubMed Listing of Publications