The optic nerve is a cable of nerve fibers that carry electrical impulses, containing visual information, from the eye to the brain. In adult mammals, any damage to the optic nerve caused by injury or disease tends to be permanent, because the cells that form the optic nerve cannot regenerate. This is why glaucoma and other diseases that involve optic nerve damage lead to permanent loss of vision. Similarly, nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord share this common tragic feature of not being able to regenerate.

The Chen lab seeks to understand why it is that neurons in the mature retina, brain and spinal cord (all parts of the central nervous system, or CNS) do not regenerate after injury. Is it the regenerative failure driven by intrinsic characteristics of neurons or neural stem cells? Or is it the result of changes in the CNS environment?

By applying advanced mouse genetic technology, Dr. Chen’s laboratory was the first to identify novel pathways that control optic nerve regeneration and neural stem cell growth in both the brain and retina. They subsequently achieved landmark breakthroughs by demonstrating full-length optic nerve regeneration from the eye all the way into the brain in postnatal mice. Their work suggests the exciting possibility of treating neurodegeneration and reversing blindness through reactivating dormant regenerative potential of the CNS. By developing convenient animal models of glaucoma and optic nerve injury, her group is now evaluating new strategies for the treatment of glaucoma and CNS neurodegenerative disorders.