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About Muhammad Ali Riaz, PhD

The cornea is the transparent tissue at the front of the eye, comprising five layers, with the corneal endothelium as the innermost layer and the corneal epithelium as the outermost layer. Corneal endothelium maintains corneal hydration, while corneal epithelium serves as a protective barrier against environmental stressors. Dysfunction of corneal endothelium and/or corneal epithelium results in corneal edema.

Our lab's long-term interests include:

1. Examining the role of cigarette smoke (CS)-mediated oxidative and hyperglycemic (diabetes) stress in corneal endothelium impairment and developing a non-invasive topical therapeutic approach using CRISPR/Cas9-edited human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) for high-throughput and high-content screening,
2. Identifying immunological factors responsible for corneal graft rejection in juvenile, CS-exposed, and diabetic animal models.
3. Understanding limbal stem cell (LSC) regulation and validating human iPSC-derived LSCs, with the overall goal of developing an iPSC-based treatment modality for acquired and genetic limbal stem cell deficiency.