Current Methods in Eye Research

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editor

Chunqiao Liu

Sun Yat-sen University, Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center

Dr. Chunqiao Liu is a Senior Investigator of the State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, China. He received his BS and MS from Northeast Agricultural University (China), and PhD from the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Before joining Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, he was a visiting scholar at the National Cancer Institute, a Carnegie research fellow at Carnegie Science, and a Senior Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. He later joined the National Eye Institute (NIH, USA) as an investigator. He identified a role of the Wnt receptor Frizzled 5 in retinal neurogenesis, which contributes to microphthalmia and coloboma in mice and humans. He also characterized distinct roles of Prickle 1, a key component of the Wnt/PCP pathway, in neural tissue, the eyelid, and the tear drainage system. Currently, his lab focuses on signaling pathway-evoked genetic programs of ocular development and diseases, and the development of a knowledge-based treatment strategy for intervention of ocular diseases using novel genetic tools and stem cell technologies. Additionally, his lab is interested in cilia biogenesis in photoreceptor and brain diseases. As first and/or corresponding authors, he has published more than 20 high-quality research articles in prestigious journals.

Collection Overview

The eye is a unique sensory organ for light detection. It is an extensively used model for understanding tissue morphogenesis and cell differentiation. The retina within the eye is a part of the central nervous system outside of the brain, readily accessible to many types of in vivo operations to understand neural function and related diseases. During past decades, many cutting-edge imaging and electrophysiological tools have been developed to study the eye. Recently, organoid culture and gene therapy have brought new promises to intervention of retinal degeneration diseases. Advanced technologies in gene profiling and single-cell RNA-seq enable scientists to explore molecular and cellular events in unprecedented depth and scale.

The goal of this methods collection is to provide highly reproducible and consistent methods for both basic research scientists in the eye field and clinical ophthalmologists dedicated to eye diseases. In line with technological advancements in the field, this collection invites articles describing current methods in eye research encompassing the aforementioned categories. Methods in this collection will include retinal organoid culture, subretinal injection for gene transfer, and bulk and single cell RNA-seq for identification of gene expression and cell types. Additionally, the collection may include imaging technologies of different parts of the eye, electroretinography, and new methods relevant to clinical practice.