About the Horsager Lab Visual sensation and perception are the
processes in which we see and understand the world around us.
This begins with a layer of cells in the eye that is only
hundreds of microns thick - the retina. When the photoreceptors
of this thin layer of neural tissue die from disease, sight is
lost, a devastating process that afflicts over 2 million people
within the US alone. There are currently no FDA approved
treatments to restore sight to these patients. The primary focus
of the Horsager Lab is to develop novel gene therapies for the
treatment of blindness due to photoreceptor disease. Our
research is motivated by the need for therapies that are both
broadly applicable and allow for precise neuromodulation, thus
restoring naturalistic visual processing independent of the
underlying cause of retinal disease. In addition, we have two
supporting lines of research that are more basic in nature: 1)
understanding how gene regulatory networks are modulated in
normal, diseased, and treated states,