Research News

Research project on ocular herpes funded by Midwest Eye Banks

Research identifying ocular herpes virus entry and spread, conducted by Deepak Shukla PhD, assistant professor and director of the Ocular Virology Lab, has received support from the Midwest Eye Banks.

The Scientific Research Award is from the Midwest Eye Bank, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to sight restoration, promoting awareness about eye related diseases and promoting eye research.

Shukla’s research will identify mediators that enable entry and facilitate the spread of the herpes viral infection in the eye. Currently, herpes virus is the leading cause of infectious blindness in developed countries.. This study focuses on nectin-1 as a possible mediator. Nectin-1 is a cell adhesion molecule that binds cells together. Increased presence of nectin-1 has been found in previous studies, suggesting that it may be the factor binding the herpes virus to ocular cells.

Shukla received his MS in biochemistry in 1989 from Banaras Hindu University in India. He completed his PhD at University of Illinois at Chicago in 1996. He was involved in eye research as a post-doctoral fellow at Northwestern University for five years before he joined UIC as an assistant professor in 2001. Among his professional honors, Shukla received the American Herpes Foundation Research Award for Excellence in Meritorious Herpes Virus Research.

-by Poornima Krishnan