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Dr. Stenkamp's research interests center on the
examination of cellular and molecular mechanisms of vertebrate
retinal development and regeneration, with a specific focus on
photoreceptor differentiation, using zebrafish as the primary experimental model.
Our major area of current investigation is the involvement of specific factors such as the signaling protein, sonic hedgehog, in regulating the differentiation of rod and cone photoreceptors. The aim is to better define the sources of these factors in the developing retina, and determine their effects on photoreceptors by using gain-of-function and loss-of-function approaches, including the examination of specific zebrafish
mutants and the creation of transgenic zebrafish with inducible
genes.
Another area of research is the study of photoreceptor cell patterns in retina that regenerates following a chemical or sugical
lesion. A computational approach to describing these patterns
has revealed possibly distinct mechanisms for neurogenesis and cell differentiation during regeneration as compared to those that operate during normal development and growth. The lab has now begun to carefully compare the processes of retinal regeneration and retinal development using molecular markers. Dr. Stenkamp is
on the Editorial Review Board for
Molecular Vision,
a peer-reviewed and award-winning online journal of vision
research. Laboratory Personnel and their current research
Ph.D. students
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Shubhangi
Prabhudesai – Retinoic acid signaling and effects on
photoreceptor differentiation.
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Dianne Mallory
– Retinal regeneration: differentiation, patterning and axonal
trajectories of regenerated ganglion cells.
Scientific Aide
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Ruth Frey –
Creation of transgenic zebrafish carrying the sonic hedgehog
gene under control of the heat shock protein promoter.
Undergraduates
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Jon Shupe –
Evolutionary consequences of domestication for the mouse visual
system.
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Larry Daniels –
Expression of the chicken interphotoreceptor retinoid binding
protein (IRBP).
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Jason Dutton
and Valisa Booher – Spatiotemporal expression pattern of the
retinoid receptor RXR alpha.
Collaborators
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Dr. David A.
Cameron, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY – Retinal
cell patterning.
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Dr. Federico
Gonzalez-Fernandez, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Buffalo, NY
– The biology of interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein (IRBP).
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Dr. Steven
Austad, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho – Aging and the evolutionary
consequences of domestication.
Courses
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