Dr Keith Martin

University position

Lecturer

Dr Keith Martin is pleased to consider applications from prospective PhD students.

Departments

Department of Clinical Neurosciences

Institutes

Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair

Email

krgm2@cam.ac.uk

Home page

http://www.brc.cam.ac.uk/pages/K... (personal home page)

Research Themes

Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

Clinical and Veterinary Neuroscience

The Cambridge Neuroscience Community

Interests

The main goal of our group is to understand better the mechanisms of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) death in glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness worldwide. We aim to develop methods to protect RGC thus slowing the progression of glaucomatous visual loss, and ultimately to restore vision in those blind due to the disease.

We have developed a novel model of glaucoma that has proven to be very useful in the investigation of glaucoma pathogenesis. The model allows RGC death to be studied both during the period of increased eye pressure and after pressure has fallen back to normal levels.

We are currently exploring the pathogenesis of axonal injury in glaucoma and investigating stem cell transplantation and neurotrophic factor gene therapy as potential treatment approaches. We also have a keen interest in the role of axonal transport dysfunction in glaucoma.

Retinal transplantation of human adult retina-derived stem cells
Click image to view full-size

Research Focus

Keywords

glaucoma

stem cells

gene therapy

optic nerve

axonopathy

Clinical conditions

Eye disease

Glaucoma

No direct clinical relevance

Equipment

Confocal microscopy

Electrophysiological recording techniques

Fluorescence microscopy

Immunohistochemistry

Microscopy

Collaborators

Key publications

Bull ND, Irvine KA, Franklin RJ, Martin KR (2009), “Transplanted oligodendrocyte precursor cells reduce neurodegeneration in a model of glaucoma.” Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 50(9):4244-53 Details

Beirowski B, Babetto E, Coleman MP, Martin KR (2008), “The WldS gene delays axonal but not somatic degeneration in a rat glaucoma model.” Eur J Neurosci 28(6):1166-79 Details

Johnson TV, Martin KR (2008), “Development and characterization of an adult retinal explant organotypic tissue culture system as an in vitro intraocular stem cell transplantation model.” Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 49(8):3503-12 Details

Publications

2006

Martin KR, Quigley HA, Valenta DF, Kielczewski J, Pease ME (2006), “Optic nerve dynein motor protein distribution changes with intraocular pressure elevation in a rat model of glaucoma” Exp Eye Res 83(2):255-62

2004

Martin KR, Quigley HA (2004), “Gene therapy for optic nerve disease.” Eye 18(11):1049-55 Details

2003

Martin KR, Quigley HA, Zack DJ, Levkovitch-Verbin H, Kielczewski J, Valenta D, Baumrind L, Pease ME, Klein RL, Hauswirth WW (2003), “Gene therapy with brain-derived neurotrophic factor as a protection: retinal ganglion cells in a rat glaucoma model” Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 44(10):4357-65