Arthur J. Weber, Ph.D.

Professor, College of Human Medicine, Department of Physiology

Glaucoma is a blinding disease characterized clinically by elevated intraocular pressure, structural changes in the optic disc, and a progressive loss of vision. The primary focus of the research in my laboratory is to define the relation between the onset and progression of glaucoma measured clinically, and the neuronal degeneration that results within the eye and its primary target, the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of the thalamus. The studies combine intracellular recording and labeling, confocal microscopy, and video-enhanced image analysis techniques to compare the structure-function relations of single retinal ganglion cells from normal and glaucomatous eyes. Conventional histological techniques are used to examine degenerative changes at the level of the LGN. Additional studies are focused on the development of treatment strategies aimed at mitigating or preventing glaucoma-related retinal ganglion cell degeneration by the delivery of neuroprotectants to the diseased eye. These studies employ standard histological techniques as well as protein analysis methods to better understand the mechanisms of cellular degeneration and neuroprotection.

Publications