Renu Kowluru MS, PhD

Dr. Kowluru’s research is focused on understanding the molecular mechanism of the development of this vision-threatening disease, especially the role of ‘Mitochondria’, in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy. Her lab is investigating how hyperglycemia damages mitochondrial structural, functional, and genomic stability, and the role of epigenetic modifications in mitochondrial homeostasis and its antioxidant defense system.

Dr. Kowluru’s laboratory is also working on the metabolic memory phenomenon associated with the continued progression of diabetic retinopathy after cessation of hyperglycemic insult, and how damaged mitochondria continue to fuel into a self-propagating cycle of free radicals.

Dr. Kowluru is the Director of Translational Research, and is a course co-coordinator of ‘Biology of the Eye’. She co-directs a course on Diabetic Retinopathy during the annual meetings of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO).