Assoc Prof Shravan Chintala Studies Norrie Disease

Norrie Disease is a genetic disorder that leads to blindness, and is caused by an aberrant gene that fails to produce Norrie disease protein. Mice that lack this protein become blind, but transgenic expression of the gene restores the loss of retinal ganglion cells necessary for vision. Associate Professor Shravan Chintala, of the Eye Research Institute, published a paper describing how Norrin Attenuates Protease-Mediated Death of Transformed Retinal Ganglion Cells in Molecular Vission (Volume 15, Pages: 26-37, 2009). In this study, he provides key evidence to help sort out the precise mechanism by which Norrie disease protein acts.