Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Taishi Painter

Lens development and cataract formation in mice

As cataracts continue to be a prominent disease that affects half of adults who live past the age of 75 years, our lab tries to tackle the underlying mechanisms as to why cataracts form, and how the lens develops. Using the newly acquired Optical Coherence Tomography machine for mice, we can now study lens structure without harming the mice, allowing us to perform new longitudinal studies of the mouse lens. This combined with other wet lab techniques, we hope to uncover as to how cataracts develop over time.

Message To Sponsor

Thank you so much for supporting my research for this summer, as it means a lot to me to be able to continue lab work and gain more experience. It is my dream to be able to continue to be part of research as I grow older, as I love to be able to tackle tough questions that interest me while also contributing to society as a whole.