Postdoc Profiles Home Research Postdocs Meet our Postdocs Postdoctoral scholars play an integral role in advancing the research goals of the CTVR. Our current postdocs are engaged in a wide range of research scanning human clinical studies, pre-clinical animal investigations, cell biological and pharmacological experimentation, and structural biology of medicines binding to their targets. They also play important roles in developing manuscripts, training students, and contributing to research proposal preparation. Postdoctoral scholars in the CTVR are strongly encouraged to seek out independent funding opportunities as a means to enhance their future career opportunities. Roman Smidak, PhD Dr. Smidak is directly involved in the study of a crucial limitation of gene editing technologies focused on virus-free delivery of functional proteins to restore visual function. Dr. Smidak is pursuing the development of novel protein delivery strategy without the need of heterologous gene expression as a viable alternative to viral-based approach. This study is of pivotal importance for translational application of base editors and exploiting their potential as very effective gene editing tools in clinical settings. The outcomes are expected to be highly beneficial for the field of ophthalmology as well as the treatment of genetic disorders. Contact Dr. Smidak Aleksander Tworak, PhD Dr. Tworak’s research interests focus on the biology of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a monolayer of post-mitotic cells lining the back of the vertebrate eye. The critical role of the RPE for the health and proper function of photoreceptors and the entire retina has been well established and described, and includes: outer blood-retina barrier function, nutrient trafficking and delivery, involvement in the visual cycle, absorption of light, as well as photoreceptor outer segment removal through the daily phagocytosis process. Despite extensive knowledge about all of those processes, many of their molecular details remain poorly understood, while their dysfunction is associated with the development of several retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the US. Dr. Tworak’s research focuses in particular on the photoreceptor outer segment phagocytosis and subsequent recycling processes occurring in the RPE cells, as well as the visual pigment regeneration pathway involving the retinal G protein coupled receptor (RGR) activity. Contact Dr. Tworak Marco Bassetto, PhD Dr. Bassetto developed his PhD in the field of ocular drug delivery. His early research aimed at establishing methods to enhance permeation of therapeutics within the eye after non-invasive, topical application. Indeed, most drugs are incompatible with the treatment of ocular diseases because they display unfavorable pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic profiles. Furthermore, invasive intraocular injections are the only way to achieve therapeutic concentrations of drugs inside the eye. The pediatric population is exceptionally vulnerable to retinal diseases because the risk of permanent retinal damage due to the treatment often exceeds the potential benefits of the therapy. Thus, most of these patients are not treated. Dr. Bassetto is among the recipient of the 2022 pediatric ophthalmology career-starter research grant from the Knight Templar Eye Foundation to pursue the goal of establishing a universal method to improve the efficiency of retinal targeting of any eyedrop. Dr. Bassetto is also focusing on the study of retinoids flux within the retina in the healthy and disease states. Although photoreceptor’s function converges in the need for a continuous supply of 11-cis-retinal to sustain visual function over time, recent data suggest that rods and cones may use different enzymatic pathways to recycle all-trans-retinal back to 11-cis-retinal. By using genetically engendered animal models, Dr. Bassetto is determining the contributions of cell-specific pools of macromolecules in the regeneration of 11-cis-retinal within cones photoreceptors. Contact Dr. Bassetto Rafal Holubowicz, PhD Dr. Holubowicz is interested in genome augmentation using derivatives of CRISPR-Cas9, namely base editors (CBE, ABE) and prime editors (PE), in the context of retinal diseases. Currently, delivery of base and prime editors relies on viral vectors, which may cause prolonged expression of these enzymes and toxic accumulation of the off-target genome editing products. Ribonucleoprotein particles (RNPs) are an alternative, which due to their shorter lifetime in the cell can repair disease-causing mutations without modifying other sites in the DNA. By inventing a way to deliver active and specific RNPs to retinal tissues, Dr. Holubowicz wants to make a foundation for novel treatments with lifelong therapeutic effects. Contact Dr. Holubowicz Dominik Lewandowski, PhD Dr. Lewandowski’s current research interests concentrate on understanding the mechanisms of retinal degenerative diseases. As a postdoc, he studied the function of adiponectin receptor 1 (AdipoR1) in the eye, a protein engaged in lipid and glucose metabolism. ADIPOR1 is one of many genes implicated in retinal degeneration, and its mutations have been associated with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Dr. Lewandowski distinguished himself by publishing an exceptionally well-researched and innovative work on AdipoR1 in the prestigious medical journal JCI Insight in 2022. His JCI Insight publication has been among the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric. It was also recognized by several science news outlets and by the director of the National Eye Institute, Dr. Michael Chiang, on his official Twitter account. Contact Dr. Lewandowski Aisha Saadane, PhD Dr. Saadane is finding safe and effective ways to prevent or ameliorate diabetic retinopathy continues to be a major research objective. Dr. Saadane works in the lab that has had a long standing interest in trying to understand the mechanisms responsible for oxidative stress and inflammation that lead to retinal vascular permeability and capillary degeneration that characterize diabetic retinopathy and finding a new therapeutic target that relatively free of side effects, and that can be used over a long period of time. Therefore, there is a never ending quest for new targets to inhibit or halt the onset and/or progression of diabetic retinopathy. Dr. Saadane’s work is focusing on i) the importance of proteolytic enzymes activities in the development of diabetic retinopathy, in particular a calcium-dependent non-lysosomal proteases, calpains, ii) the role of the skin in the development of diabetic retinopathy, and to investigate whether skin mediate the beneficial effect of photobiomodulation (PBM) on DR. Contact Dr. Saadane Emma Lessieur, PhD Due to her Latino background, Dr. Lessieur academic research focuses on diabetic retinopathy, a severe complication of diabetes that causes blindness and that commonly affects the Latino community. Her research work was awarded with a minority supplement from the National Eye Institute. Her postdoctoral academic research has demonstrated that cells of the immune system play an important role in the development of the vascular lesions of early diabetic retinopathy and this work has generated two manuscripts under her name ( DOI: 10.1007/s00125-019-04998-4 and 10.1167/iovs.62.13.7). Recently, Dr. Lessieur demonstrated that diabetes-induced upregulation of endothelial ICAM-1 does not occur uniformly among all tissues in the body and is highest in the retina, a potential explanation of why the vascular lesions of diabetes are more severe in the retina than in other organs in the body. She also shown that the diabetes-induced increase of ICAM-1 in the luminal surface of the retinal vascular endothelium is due at least in part to the metabolic activity in a unique cell-type in the retina, photoreceptors (Lessieur et al. 2022, Diabetologia, in press). This work advances our understanding of the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy, since it demonstrates that the cells in charge of vision are simultaneously involved in the retinal vascular pathology of diabetes. Her relevant work got her an invitation to present her research at the International Center for Translational Eye Research (ICTER) in Warsaw, Poland in April 2022. Contact Dr. Lessieur Deepak Poria, PhD Dr. Poria received his MSc and PhD in neuroscience at the National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, INDIA under the guidance of Dr. Narender Dhingra and Dr. Shiv Kumar Sharma. During his graduate studies, he studied the spike activity of retinal ganglion cells to understand the mechanism of spontaneous burst firing in these cells after photoreceptor degeneration. The aim of Dr. Poria postdoctoral research is to understand different aspects of photoreceptor function in health and disease for advancing vision restoration approaches. Genetic tools allow us to manipulate specific aspects of the visual signaling in photoreceptors. Dr. Poria uses a combination of transgenic animals, electrophysiological recordings and morphological analysis, to study the physiological properties of rods and cones in the retina to investigate conditions that affect their sensitivity, response kinetics and adaptation to light. Dr. Poria has published in many prestigious journals including Nature, Journal of Neuroscience, World Journal of Stem Cells and others. Contact Dr. Poria Cezary Rydz, MD Dr. Rydz is a medical doctor and a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Dorota Skowronska-Krawczyk's lab. Prior to joining Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, he worked as a clinician in Germany. Dr. Rydz is interested in understanding mechanisms of aging that affect our vision. The time-dependent accumulation of damage at cellular level that leads to deterioration of tissue characteristics and decline in physiological function, eventually affects all cells and tissues in the human body. However, the pathophysiology of age-related changes in vision is still not fully understood. By connecting functional and molecular approaches, he hopes to contribute to a better understanding of mechanisms of age-related diseases. With his research Dr. Rydz aims to make a foundation for development of novel therapeutic approaches for ocular diseases. Contact Dr. Rydz Mithalesh Singh, PhD Dr. Singh is a molecular researcher specializing in ocular cancers and other eye disorders. His most recent assignment dealt with the 'Role of EPAC Signaling in Melanoma Progression.' The proposed research aims to elucidate the molecular pathways underlying the transformation of a skin-resident confined primary tumor into an aggressive and deadly metastatic illness. While his present research will concentrate on novel therapeutic approaches for slowing the progression of age-related macular degeneration. Dr. Singh’s other area of research will be the role of mitochondria in ocular malignancies. Contact Dr. Singh Kevin Schneider, PhD Dr. Schneider’s current postdoctoral project involves studying the role of mitochondria in the development and progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). His interest is how the mitochondria can alter nuclear gene expression and contribute to the development and progression of AMD. His work has demonstrated with our cybrid cell system that mitochondria from AMD patients can alter microRNA expression, and that normalization of these levels using targeted microRNA therapeutics can have powerful impacts on cellular health. These studies could help identify novel microRNA biomarkers, as well as lead to the development of targeted treatments for AMD and other diseases of aging and mitochondrial dysfunction. Dr. Schneider’s long-term research interests have always involved molecular pathways and how changes in signaling pathways as we age can drive dramatic biological changes. Contact Dr. Schneider