The Pearring lab was awarded a 3 year Research Award from the E. Matilda Ziegler Foundation For The Blind to support a project titled, “Photoreceptor Outer Segment Regeneration: Understanding the Molecular Programs and Dynamic Cellular Processes for De Novo Biogenesis”. This proposal employs molecular genetic techniques and innovative advanced microscopy to uncover the molecular and cellular programs involved in daily outer segment renewal and then applies this knowledge to transform a primary cilium into a large, membrane-dense, light-sensing organelle. 

Our vision begins in the ciliary outer segment compartment of retinal photoreceptor cells where light is captured and transformed into a neuronal signal. Unlike other primary cilia, the outer segment is 50-fold larger and filled with hundreds of tightly-stacked disc-shaped membranes, increasing light sensitivity. As light detectors, photoreceptors are highly susceptible to phototoxic damage, which is alleviated by continuously replacing their outer segment on a daily basis. Like a conveyer belt, outer segment renewal occurs by adding new disc material to the base, while old discs at the tip are shed and taken up by neighboring retinal pigment epithelium cells. Understanding the underlying mechanisms governing outer segment renewal will provide valuable insight into how to build and regenerate this light-sensing organelle following injury or disease. 

Jorge Martínez-Márquez, PhD was award a postdoctoral fellowship from the Vision Research Training Program at the University of Michigan. Congratulations Jorge! He will be using advanced live imaging to study how vesicles are transported to the ciliary outer segment compartment in mouse rod photoreceptors.

Jorge Martínez-Márquez, PhD is a new postdoctoral fellow. He completed his graduate work in Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan working with Dr. Mara Duncan on membrane trafficking in budding yeast. He studied the function of the yeast arrestin Ldb19/Art1, a known endocytic protein, at the trans-Golgi Network. His work was recently published in PLoS One.

Karen Hug is a new research technician. She studied Biochemistry at the University of Michigan with a minor in Chinese Language and Literature, and she studied abroad at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China.