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UD's Salil Lachke identifies new mechanism essential for eye lens development

May 17, 2018

Cataracts Genetics Lens

Basic Research

Grantee

Cataract disease, commonly found in the elderly, is a leading cause of blindness in the world.

Until now, scientists did not understand much about how these cells can simultaneously prune away obstructions without damaging proper development of the eye lens to maintain the lens' clarity.

But now, University of Delaware biologist Salil Lachke and his collaborators show the protein (Celf1) is essential to this process and reveal the mechanism used in three different vertebrates - mice, frogs and zebrafish.