Waking up from the food coma to finally give thanks to everyone (past and present) for making the lab a great place to hang out!

Congratulations to Jenna, Michael, Jackson, and Isaiah on their new publication! This article was the first article with the lab for Jenna and Isaiah! The article examines the EphA2 receptor’s ability to signal canonically via receptor-ligand interaction and non-canonically without ligand binding. Non-canonical EphA2 signaling is typically associated with cancerous cells or tissues. Interestingly, our data is the first demonstration that non-canonical EphA2 signaling is active in normal wild-type lenses, and our results suggest that non-canonical EphA2 signaling has a physiological function. Have a look here: Canonical ligand-dependent and non-canonical ligand-independent EphA2 signaling in the eye lens of wild-type, knockout, and aging mice.

Happy Birthday to Gryffin! Glad we were able to fit in a birthday lunch amidst all the work and study!

Dr. Cheng’s chapter on Lens Structure is now available digitally, ahead of the full Encyclopedia of the Eye, 2nd Edition’s (newer edition) physical print. Contact our lab (ckcheng@iu.edu or mpvu@iu.edu) to get a digital copy of the chapter!

We recently had Dr. Yuka Okada visit us for some research and some fun! Thanks for coming Yuka, we’ll see you again soon!

The lab was able to celebrate Peter’s birthday recently with a fun lunch! Happy Birthday Peter!

Check out our new review paper on tissue, cellular, and molecular level determinants for ocular lens biomechanical properties that was recently published in Frontiers Ophthalmology! Increased lens stiffness and decreased lens elasticity have long been hypothesized to contribute to age-related loss of accommodation, or presbyopia, and the need for reading glasses. This review highlights recent work uncovering mechanisms influencing lens stiffness and elasticity that may serve as novel pharmaceutical targets for treating, delaying, and/or preventing presbyopia. Have a read here: Tissue, cellular, and molecular level determinants for eye lens stiffness and elasticity.

We are very excited to announce that Gryffin Flowers was awarded a scholarship from IU School of Optometry to pursue his M.S. degree along with his O.D. degree! Gryffin works hard to excel in the classroom and research lab. In the lab, his project is investigating the cellular and molecular mechanisms that affect eye lens biomechanical properties. Way to go, Gryffin!

Congratulations to Jenna Horner and Gryffin Flowers for earning best talk and best poster awards at Heartland Vision Research Symposium 2024! HVRS highlights innovative vision research with presenters from Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and beyond. This year, HVRS was hosted by IU Ophthalmology in the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute. The keynote speaker was Dr. Michael Chiang, director of the National Eye Institute, who featured new NEI projects and initiatives for data gathering, storage, and sharing. Dr. Chiang also took some time to congratulate the award winners. We are so proud of our OD/MS students for their outstanding research on Eph-ephrin signaling in the lens and their excellent presentations!

With some cooperation from the weather, we were able to celebrate Jenna’s birthday!