Researches at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas Children’s Hospital, and the Hospital for Sick Children have developed a new platform that enables them to uncover new regulators of retina neurons. This platform, named INSiGHT, was used to examine more than 100 genes, and 16 key retinal regulatory genes were identified.

Of these genes, 15 have not been previously identified as retinal regulators and nine have been associated with human diseases. The findings, which are published in the journal Cell Reports, contribute to a more complete picture of the genetic factors involved in retinal function in health and disease.

“Unless we can understand the molecular pathways that control neural fate, identity and connectivity, it becomes difficult to prevent or treat visual impairments, which globally affect 253 million people,” said corresponding author Dr Melanie Samuel, assistant professor of neuroscience and in the Huffington Center on Aging at Baylor College of Medicine.