Two UB Vision Researchers Receive Federal Grants

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Two researchers in the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences have received federal grants totaling more than $640,000 to conduct research into the function and development of the human vision system.

The grants were awarded by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. The grants were announced by Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence.

Malcolm M. Slaughter, professor in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, has received a grant of $369,700 to study the different ways in which glycine can increase vision clarity and benefit the nervous system.

Shahrokh C. Khani, assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology, was awarded a $271,703 grant to study the enzyme rhodospin, which can cause retinal disease, and the susceptibility of the retina to light-induced injury and how to prevent such injury.

A UB faculty member since 1984, Slaughter is a pioneer in the study of vision. His findings have been published in the top scientific journals Nature and Science, as well as in leading journals in the vision field.

His research focuses on information processing in the retina; in particular, the events that occur at synapses, the connections between nerve cells. At synapses, neurotransmitter chemicals are released by one neuron and detected by receptors located on another neuron. The type of transmitter that is used and the kinds of receptors that detect these transmitters determine how these two neurons communicate. Research in Slaughter's laboratory is directed at investigating these transmitters and their receptors in the retina. The work can be used to analyze how the retina works and what visual information is encoded by neurons in the retina.

The researchers also are comparing this information to that gathered with an electroretinogram, a clinical tool that is used by ophthalmologists to evaluate the health of the retina. They are using information gained from studying transmitters to improve the analytical potential of the electroretinogram.

Slaughter and his colleagues also are working in the broader field of medical pharmacology. Transmitters are used throughout the brain, and many pharmaceutical agents work by regulating the action of these transmitters. With most of these drugs acting at the receptors, the scientists have studied a number of these receptors, and can apply the knowledge they have obtained from their retinal studies to the broader area of medical pharmacology.

Slaughter also serves as director of UB graduate studies in biophysics.

A UB faculty member since 1995, Khani also specializes in the retina.

His research group is studying the molecular basis of inherited retinal diseases and is focusing on developing gene-directed therapeutic approaches for these blinding disorders.

The scientists have studied Oguchi disease, a physiologic model of human night blindness, and provided evidence for the etiologic role of rhodopsin kinase mutation in the disease. They are interested in developing ways to reverse the effect of mutations in the disease through various gene-directed therapeutic approaches. To that end, they are devising means to increase the activity of partially defective rhodopsin kinase enzyme in patients with Oguchi disease. The researchers also are investigating ways to deliver intact genes into the diseased retina in model systems in order to reverse the aftereffects of mutations.

Another part of their research concentrates on the regulation of rhodopsin kinase and the molecular basis of tissue of developmental and retina-specific expression for the gene.

Khani also holds an adjunct appointment in the medical school's Department of Biochemistry.