Research Statement
David Krizaj, PhD, is the principal investigator of a National Eye Institute-funded laboratory with research interests that include intraocular pressure regulation, photoreceptor signaling, and the role calcium plays in neuropathological disorders.
Dr. Krizaj is the John Frederick Carter Endowed Professor of Ophthalmology at the John A. Moran Eye Center, and deputy director of research. He also serves as associate director of science for the Alan S. Crandall Center for Glaucoma Innovation at the Moran Eye Center, and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Utah Departments of Neurobiology and Anatomy and Bioengineering.
Dr. Krizaj's Laboratory is interested in the relationship between intracellular signaling pathways and neurotransmission in the retina. The lab is interested in how non-conventional signaling pathways such as intracellular calcium stores, calcium transporters, and store-operated calcium channels collaborate with voltage-operated signals to modulate graded exocytosis. For example, recent experiments elucidated the roles of ryanodine receptors, mitochondria and TRPC channels in spatiotemporal calcium signaling in photoreceptors, glial cells, and retinal ganglion neurons.
Other projects focus on how TRP channels integrate temperature, mechanical stress, and lipid signals, and how translation of these sensory inputs impacts on parallel light-evoked inputs and survival in ganglion cells. Another project is focused on using in vivo multiphoton imaging to define the physiology of microglia within the retina.
Publications from Dr. Krizaj
