Research Expertise and Interest

optometry, vision science, eye development and diseases, lens development

Research Description

Xiaohua Gong is a professor of Optometry and Vision Science at UC Berkeley.  Research in his lab has been directed at studying molecular and cellular mechanisms that control eye development and diseases by using multi-discipline techniques from the fields of molecular and cellular biology, genetics, biochemistry, and electrophysiology etc. They are interested in the studies of novel genetic factors that play essential roles in cataractogenesis and retinal degeneration as well as the studies of ocular disease models in vitro and in vivo for new approaches to diagnose, prevent and/or cure eye diseases.

The research group has been investigating mouse eye disease models for lens cataract and retinal degeneration.  The goal of the studies is to identify new targets for understanding their roles in the eye development as well as in diseases that recapitulate related human eye diseases. These eye disease models will be used to develop novel biological or chemical tools to diagnose, prevent and/or cure related eye diseases.

Current projects are mainly focusing on the studies of lens growth and development, cataractogenesis and the diseases that are related to retina and vasculature in the eye.