https://vinberglab.com/our-vision daily 0.75 2025-12-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f90bf9abecac02c6f132881/1603373227034-1PCW12V1MFZWSI5D6QLN/Macular-Degeneration-Boys-Profile+from+scEYEnce. Our Vision - Seeing The Problem. Millions of Americans are blind or severely visually impaired. Majority of diseases causing blindness in developed countries are affecting the retina. Among the most common of retinal diseases are Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) and Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). In most cases there is no treatment and patients suffering from these diseases can’t live independently or work. Vinberg laboratory is using latest technology and experimental approaches to understand how light signaling in the retina is affected in AMD, DR and RP. This understanding is critical for developing new treatments to cure or slow-down visual impairment/blindness. We use both animal models of disease as well as human eye tissue from healthy as well as AMD- and DR-affected donors. We have established unique collaborations with Eye Banks and Organ Donor Organizations to obtain light-responsive postmortem human eyes. These tissues allow us to study functional aspects of the human fovea and macula and vision disorders as well as develop novel treatments for retinal neurodegenerative diseases. — Image shows how someone with advanced AMD would see the world around him/her. Photo credit: scEYEnce https://vinberglab.com/our-team daily 0.75 2025-12-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f90bf9abecac02c6f132881/1603331354042-R1GX0H665CX4FLQ0JC71/Frans+headshot.jpg Our Team - Frans Vinberg, PhD Tobias Keene, D.D.S. Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Dr. Tobias Keene brings a bit of unabashed Southern hospitality to all his patients. He moved to Washington, D.C. over thirty years ago as a freshman at Ivy College. Right after graduation, he attended World University’s School of Dentistry. Before opening Keene Dental in 1994, he worked for free clinics and some of the finest practices in the District. He is part of the 123 Dental Association and stays up-to-date on the latest dental discoveries. When not striving to keep his patients happy and healthy, he’s enjoys hiking with his family in Rock Creek Park. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f90bf9abecac02c6f132881/1eab8b9f-fb64-45d3-a1b9-2891db6f2d12/Vinberg+Lab-Zia+LEcuyer.jfif Our Team - Zia L’Ecuyer Morison Neuroscience graduate student. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f90bf9abecac02c6f132881/5df1d9da-756f-4bde-be30-e8ccfb03634b/Lee+Sturgis-Vinberg+Lab.jfif Our Team - Lee Sturgis Neuroscience graduate student. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f90bf9abecac02c6f132881/b149a204-8666-421e-8bd6-510b9b37d549/Vinberg+Lab-Deepa+Mathew_0.jfif Our Team Dr. Mathew joined the Vinberg lab in March 2022 as a postdoctoral research associate. She completed her doctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Raghava Varman Thampan at Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, India, where she studied epididymal albumin and its interaction with sperm membrane proteins. She was fascinated by circadian biology after her summer training in the laboratory of Prof. M. K Chandrasekharan at JNCASR India. During her previous postdoctoral stints, Dr. Mathew studied the effect of circadian rhythm disruption on retinal physiology in mouse models in the laboratory of Dr. Ashay Bhatwadekar at the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Eye Institute, and characterized the circadian and metabolic phenotype of ID2 null mice in the laboratory of Dr. Giles Duffield at the University of Notre Dame. Currently, Dr. Mathew is interested in investigating the molecular mechanisms involved in retinal remodeling during photoreceptor degeneration. https://vinberglab.com/home daily 1.0 2025-12-22 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f90bf9abecac02c6f132881/d5fa27cc-f678-4395-8c9c-673c1eea258d/OCT.jpg Home - Ex vivo models to study ischemia-reperfusion injury and other retinal diseases Vinberg lab and their spin-off company Eyescreen, Inc. are developing new approaches to study ischemia-reperfusion injury in the central nervous system as well as developing preclinical ophthalmic models for AMD, CRAO and inflammatory eye diseases. This work is based on our pioneering human donor eye work and patended technology developed in our laboratory., and is currently funded by NIH/NEI SBIR grant. On the news: August 1, 2025: Read story about our spin-off company that describes background and future goals of this translational research program. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f90bf9abecac02c6f132881/1766260007601-EO7OBCJKQKKA07P4C2YS/unsplash-image-0L6e2y-PaCY.jpg Home - Eye transplantation After loss of retinal neurons or traumatic eye injury, few if any, options are currently available to restore vision. Vinberg lab joins Stanford-led ARPA-H funded team to establish whole eye transplanation to restore vision in bilaterally blind patients where other treatment options are not available. On the news: Dec 2, 2024: Research highlight about our ARPA-H contract. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f90bf9abecac02c6f132881/1603334219507-5FB92AOFDVDK4011OHF1/car+head+lights.png Home - Dark adaptation and bright light vision In aging, and specifically in AMD, one of the first noticeable effects on vision is the change in our ability to adapt to rapid decreases in ambient light. Patients, for instance, have often trouble driving at night when ambient light can change quickly (like the headlights from oncoming cars while driving). Photo credit: Matthew Michela. On the news: June 9, 2022: New paper published in Nature has been featured in several news outlets: ABC4; KSL; Nature podcast; WYPL-FM 89.3 Eye on Vision; EyewireTV,… Sep 9, 2020: 5-year R01 from NIH/NEI grant awarded to study pigment bright light vision and dark adaptation in the human retina. Dec 9, 2019: 4-year grant from Research to Prevent Blindness awarded to Vinberg lab to study dark adaptation mechanisms in the human macula. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5f90bf9abecac02c6f132881/1603373947031-KSK6RDS5K37X3DQTZ021/mglur6%2Bnew.jpg Home - Modulation of light signaling in the retina during retinal degenerative disease Many blinding diseases are initially caused by photoreceptor degeneration and various strategies are being developed to restore vision including using stem cell and gene therapy approaches. However, it is now well known that photoreceptor degeneration triggers a remodeling process of the inner retina that may corrupt retinal signaling and make these therapies ineffective. Image modified from Leinonen et al. 2020, eLife. On the news: Nov 25, 2020: Research highlight about our research paper on the NIH/NEI news. Nov 6, 2020: Frans’ radio interview by Vance Durbin at FM 89.3, Memphis, TX about the plasticity in the retina during photoreceptor degenerative disease. https://vinberglab.com/brightlightvision daily 0.75 2022-06-22 https://vinberglab.com/plasticity daily 0.75 2023-05-16 https://vinberglab.com/news daily 0.75 2025-12-20 https://vinberglab.com/publications daily 0.75 2025-12-20 https://vinberglab.com/preclinical daily 0.75 2025-12-20 https://vinberglab.com/eyetransplant daily 0.75 2025-12-20