NIH R01 · 2024
A hyperspectral approach to RPE fluorophores in AMD
Clinical trials for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) depend on imaging outcomes to measure success. Strong autofluorescence (AF) signal from the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) has high potential for noninvasive, spatially and molecularly precise early detection, and longitudinal follow-up. Subcellular signal sources of RPE AF are lipofuscin (LF) granules, many also containing melanin (melanolipofuscin, ML). New concepts of human RPE cell biology make fulfilling the potential of fundus AF more possible than ever. Each adult human perifoveal RPE cell has >1400 organelles that generate reflectivity for optical coherence tomography (OCT). Half are LF or ML that also generate fundus AF…
From the public funding record at NIH RePORTER. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.