Date of Award

1-1-2011

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Chemistry

Content Description

1 online resource (xv, 137 pages) : illustrations (some color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Jayanti Pande

Committee Members

Li Niu, Alex Shekhtman, Carla Theimer, Richard Zitomer

Keywords

Cataract, Crystallin, NMR, Crystalline lens

Subject Categories

Biochemistry | Biophysics | Chemistry

Abstract

Age-related cataract is the most common cause of blindness worldwide. Nearly fifty percent of Americans above the age of 75 are diagnosed with this disease (http://www.nei.nih.gov/eyedata/pbd_tables.asp), and surgical intervention is the sole method of treatment at present (http://www.nei.nih.gov/healthyvision/objective/cataracts.asp). In the developing world, even this treatment is not readily available. These are compelling reasons to search for better treatments to delay, prevent or arrest cataract formation. Recent evidence suggests that age-related cataracts also have a genetic component. Therefore, determining the mechanisms underlying genetic cataracts with a known association to a protein-mutation is one important strategy towards understanding the molecular basis for cataract formation. This approach has the added advantage of addressing the mechanisms of congenital and childhood cataracts which are difficult to treat. For these reasons, work from this laboratory over the past decade has been aimed at determining the molecular mechanisms underlying a number of genetic cataracts by studying the mutant proteins associated with them.

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