The Zhao Laboratory

The overall objective of our laboratory is to study biology, development, and diseases of the anterior segment of the eye, including the cornea, lens, iris, cillary body, and anterior angle. There are a number of human disorders involving this complex structure of the eye such as corneal dystrophy, glaucoma, and anterior segment dysgeneses. The ultimate goal is to develop novel and more precise diagnostics, identify better pharmaceutical drugs, and design more effective treatments and preventions to the human anterior eye diseases. We use genetic and transgenic approaches to develop zebrafish models of several anterior eye disorders. We are also interested in studying angiogenesis using the corneal model and generating genetic resources such as chromosomal rearrangement mutants in zebrafish.