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Huaiyu Hu, PhD

Mechanisms and therapeutic development in genetic retinal degeneration and brain malformations

Dr. Huaiyu HuDr. Hu’s laboratory studies the mechanisms of genetic diseases affecting the central nervous system, including the eye and the brain, and developing gene therapies for these genetic diseases. We are especially interested in how cell-extracellular matrix interactions are involved in the development of the brain and the retina and how disruptions of such interactions affect normal development.

We focus on two types of genetic diseases, retinitis pigmentosa and congenital muscular dystrophies that also involve the central nervous system.  Specifically, we study the effects of abnormal protein glycosylation on cell-extracellular matrix interactions and how defective cell-extracellular matrix interactions cause retinal dystrophy and brain dysfunction.  In our laboratory, we use mouse and zebrafish to model these diseases and to aid in the discovery of experimental therapeutics including gene therapy.


Contact: Huaiyu Hu, PhD Professor, Neuroscience & Physiology and Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
Location: 4710 Institute For Human Performance
Phone: (315) 464-8143
Email: huh@upstate.edu

Dr. Hu is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  He also teaches Medical Physiology to first-year medical students and participates in teaching several other graduate courses. Some of the work from the laboratory has been published in Neuron, Nature Neuroscience, and Human Gene Therapy. He has reviewed manuscripts for journals such as the Journal of Neuroscience; Journal of Biological Chemistry; Nature Neuroscience; PLOS Biology; and Science.

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