Neena B. Haider PhD

Dr. Haider has been involved in the field of genetics and retinal disease for over 15 years. She received her Ph.D. in Genetics from University of Iowa and did a postdoctoral fellowship at The Jackson Laboratory. She has published more than 25 original papers in such journals as Nature Genetics, Human Molecular Genetics, and PloS One, focusing on human genetics, mouse model systems, and genomics in regulation and modulation of human retinal disease.
The Haider lab identified a genetic modifier that is able to ameliorate retinal degeneration. This work exemplifies her lab's use of mouse models and demonstrates how genes in the same functional network can affect phenotype. These findings have profound implications in developing broad therapeutics for many forms of disease with the same pathology. The lab's current research also revealed a novel role for Vitamin D metabolism in the pathogenesis of age related macular degeneration and antioxidants in neuroprotection from light induced retinal damage. Her lab has also developed unique genetic models to study the retinal and vascular phenotype associated with macular degeneration.