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Raca receives grant to study genetic causes of eye malformations

Dr. Gordana Raca

MADISON – Gordana Raca, M.D., Ph.D., director of UW Cytogenetic Services at the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and assistant professor in the University of Wisconsin Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, received a University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) grant to investigate the genetic causes of eye malformations. Dr. Raca’s grant was one of 22 awarded during ICTR’s second round of funding.
 
The research, which will be performed in collaboration with Lisa Schimmenti, M.D., from the University of Minnesota, will examine the role of gene copy abnormalities in the development of ocular birth defects. The researchers will utilize high-resolution oligonucleotide array CHG testing technology to survey the genomes of patients with coloboma, anophthalmia and microphthalmia for deletions and duplications affecting genes involved in eye development. Ocular birth defects, coloboma, microphthalmia and anophthalmia occur in ~2 per 10,000 newborns and cause up to ten percent of childhood blindness.

By identifying those regions of the human genome that undergo duplication or deletion in affected individuals, the researchers believe their study will not only detect new genetic causes of eye anomalies, but also develop methods for more comprehensive and efficient clinical diagnostics.
 
More information on all ICTR grants, including Dr. Raca’s.
 

Posted By: Jan Klawitter, WSLH Public Affairs and Training Manager
Date: August 11, 2008