Autoimmune diseases such as non-infectious intermediate/erior uveitis (NIPU) are thought to involve Th1 and/or Th17 subsets of autoreactive CD4+T-lymphocytes that infiltrate the retinal tissues, causing a localized inflammation and chronic disease. NIPU is a significant cause of visual loss, accounting for roughly 10% of patients under the age of 65 years who are registered with sight loss. Most patients are young and otherwise healthy, with less than a third having a significant associated systemic disease. Much of our understanding of disease progression in NIPU comes from studying models of experimental autoimmune uveoretinitis (EAU), where both Th1 and Th17 are detected within the retinal tissues. Through adoptive transfer studies, the uveitogenic roles of both Th1 and Th17 have been demonstrated as they can both induce EAU following immunization into naïve hosts. My research interest is on immune cell crosstalk in different microenvironments, which leads to programmed infiltration reactivity.

The goal of this collection is a better understanding of intraocular inflammatory disease development/progression, as well as the generation of novel therapeutic studies. The objectives are: (1) to the importance of researching these diseases; (2) to share the step-by-step and in vitro and in vivo models that are being used; and (3) to encourage new cross-disciplinary idea formulation.