BLR&D Research Career Scientist Application

糖尿病视网膜病变仍然是美国成年人视力丧失的主要原因，并且正在增加 在美国和世界各地，糖尿病迅速影响更多的人。虽然长期良好 血糖控制已被证明可抑制患者中糖尿病视网膜病变的发展， 对于大多数糖尿病患者来说，这一目标基本上是不可能维持的，因此需要额外的手段来 抑制糖尿病视网膜病变的发展。克恩实验室致力于研究糖尿病患者 视网膜病发展，因此可以被抑制。本研究目前主要集中在四个研究领域 与糖尿病视网膜病变的发展有关，其中大多数最初由或 由克恩博士和他的合作者倡导：（1）白细胞和炎症的作用，作为一个原因， 糖尿病视网膜病变，以及通过表观遗传乙酰化调节这些促炎性变化， (2)视网膜感光细胞和视觉本身在视网膜血管发育中的作用 糖尿病视网膜病变的渗漏和变性，（3）使用低强度光来抑制和逆转 糖尿病视网膜病变，和（4）使用G-蛋白偶联受体的系统药理学来抑制 视网膜病变目前正在讨论将这些发现转化为糖尿病患者。

Diabetic retinopathy remains the leading cause of visual loss in adults in the US, and it is increasing throughout the US and the world as diabetes rapidly affects more people. Although prolonged good glycemic control has been demonstrated to inhibit the development of diabetic retinopathy in patients, this goal is essentially impossible for most diabetics to maintain, so additional means are needed to inhibit the development of diabetic retinopathy. The Kern laboratory focuses on how diabetic retinopathy develops and thus can be inhibited. This research currently focuses on 4 research areas related to the development of diabetic retinopathy, most of which initially were reported by or championed by Dr. Kern and his collaborators: (1) the role of leukocytes and inflammation as a cause of diabetic retinopathy, and the regulation of those pro-inflammatory changes by epigenetic acetylation, (2) the role of retinal photoreceptor cells and vision itself in the development of the retinal vascular leakage and degeneration of diabetic retinopathy, (3) the use of low intensity light to inhibit and reverse diabetic retinopathy, and (4) the use of systems pharmacology of G-Protein Coupled Receptors to inhibit the retinopathy. Discussions are now underway to translate these findings into patients with diabetes.