Rupali Vohra

Progress towards precision medicine for glaucoma targeting mitochondrial function

Glaucoma is an eye disease affecting elderly people, leading to blindness and severely affecting the quality of life of these patients. Currently treatments are only alleviating and halting the symptoms for a limited time and are mostly focused on lowering the pressure within the eye. Here we want to explore if the mitochondrial defects observed in the nerve cells of the eye are also present in the skin cells of the patients. If we can find similar defects we would be able to predict the outcome and test tailored medical interventions directly on the patient skin cells. This would enable us to develop personalized treatment strategies for our glaucoma patients in the eye clinic in Glostrup.

Mentors

Basic Mentor: Associate Professor Kristine Freude, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (IVH), University of Copenhagen

Clinical Mentor: Professor MSO Miriam Kolko, Eye Translational Research Unit, Rigshospitalet-Glostrup