Simon W. M. John

Dr. John’s research program determines molecular mechanisms of complex eye diseases. His group uses a multidisciplinary approach including developmental biology, genetics, genomics (especially transcriptomics and sequencing), cell biology, metabolomics and physiology, collaborating with biomedical engineers to develop new research tools. Important focuses are on IOP elevation, ocular drainage structure biology/physiology and neural degeneration in glaucoma. Glaucoma is a major cause of human blindness and is often associated with elevated IOP. Dr. John is a recognized leader in his area; his group developed a number of critical tools and models. He is expert in determining mechanism of complex, age-dependent conditions, and is well known for innovative use of mouse models to answer long-standing questions. Overall, Dr. John’s expertise and interests provide a diverse research/training environment. In addition to classical genetic approaches, the John lab uses chemically induced mutations, transgenic models, knockouts and viral manipulations (CRISPR and RNA interference) to test hypotheses and to test the importance of specific pathways and treatments. Dr. John is also expert in gene expression studies and his group developed approaches that allowed identification and temporal ordering of very early glaucoma stages that preceded neural degeneration. They were the first to uncouple somal and axon degeneration pathways in glaucoma. In fact, they introduced the concept of compartmentalized degeneration to the field. Another focus is metabolism in age and disease. His group recently implicated NAD metabolism in aging and glaucoma, and then demonstrated profound protection using vitamin B3 and NAD increasing gene therapy.