Sarah Palko, neuroscience graduate student, is studying age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in the Mohan lab. Their work has shown in multiple models of retinal degeneration that the enzyme peptidyl arginine deiminase-4 (PAD4) drives a pathological process known as citrullination (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121875119). Sarah has now extended her study by validating a critical role for PAD4 driven hypercitrullination in retinal fibrosis. The new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience Research (https://doi.org/10.1002/jnr.25158) illuminates a novel druggable target for therapeutics in retinal diseases where there are currently no fibrosis inhibitors.
