What a great time we had at ARVO in Colorado! Yes, it was more than a month ago, but the jet-lag finally wore off. Dr. Cheng and Subashree commemorated their successful talks with a new friend to the lab!

This past Saturday was a blast! We were volunteers at the fifth annual Girls in Engineering, Math, and Science (GEMS) conference. For our section, we were presenting the anatomy of the eye such that these girls would be able to envision how their own eyes were composed. Along with the other Indiana School of Optometry stations, we wanted to educate and inspire these young visionaries. We look forward to the chance to volunteer again next year!

Here we have Subashree explaining the anatomy as Michael and Jackson aid the presentation!

No April’s Fool joke here, we are excited to welcome Dr. Yuki Sugiyama to the lab! She has been involved in lens research for many years and will now continue to study the lens with us!

Congratulations to Dr. Cheng for being named a recipient of the 2022 Indiana University Bloomington Outstanding Junior Faculty Award! She is one of five fantastic recipients. This award is given to faculty who have not yet been awarded tenure and will provide the recipients additional resources to continue pursuing their research efforts.

Check out Subashree’s first, first author review article about the roles of Eph-ephrin signaling in the eye lens detailing the importance of this signaling pathway in lens cataractogenesis, biomechanics, and homeostasis! Here is the link to the review: Roles of Eph-Ephrin Signaling in the Eye Lens Cataractogenesis, Biomechanics, and Homeostasis.

Exciting news for our excellent colleague Subashree! After months of preparation, she has passed her qualification exam. Subashree Murugan is now a Ph.D candidate! Congratulations Subashree!

Happy New Year! We are starting off 2022 with a newly published article that was done in collaboration with Dr. Kehao Wang, Dr. Masato Hoshino, Dr. Kentaro Uesugi, Dr. Naoto Yagi, and Dr. Barbara Pierscionek! Our article examines the role of Eph-ephrin signaling in lens fiber cell maturation, nuclear compaction and lens shape. Our data suggests that this signaling may be required for fiber cell membrane reorganization, compaction and establishing a normal gradient of refractive index. Check out our article here: EphA2 Affects Development of the Eye Lens Nucleus and the Gradient of Refractive Index.

This image was generated from an X-ray synchrotron beam source that measures the gradient of refractive index.

Lens function depends on its ability to change shape and accommodate to focus light onto the retina. Little is known about the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control lens biomechanical properties. We examined the influence of EphA2 and ephrin-A5 signaling on the elasticity of the lens and discovered that cell patterning constrains lens biomechanical properties.

https://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2778131.

Check out Dr. Raji Shyam’s recently published article where Subashree is co-author. They investigated the “Rescue of the CHED Mouse Model by AAV-mediated Slc4a11 Replacement”. Check out their results: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666914521000865.

GFP data by Subashree

In collaboration with Junyuan Gao, Xiurong Sun, and Richard T. Mathias, we examined the relationship between Eph-ephrin signaling and microcirculation in the lens. You can read the article with this link: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2021.772276/full.