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Welcome to Clark Lab!
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
Research
The Clark Lab conducts research investigating how the vertebrate retina develops from a pool of multi-potent retinal progenitor cells (RPCs). We use a combination of molecular biology and genetic techniques to understand how gene regulatory networks regulate RPC proliferation, cell-cycle exit, and cell differentiation, with the long-term goal of understanding how genetic aberrations contribute to retinal disorders. Areas of research within the lab include:
- Determining the mechanisms by which gene expression and cell fate are temporally regulated.
- Examination of DNA methylation homeostasis during retinal cell fate specification.
- Characterization of long non-coding RNA expression, function, and scaffolding complexes
- Genome-wide profiling of cis-regulatory sequence activity during retinal development
- Implementation of novel tools to assess epigenetic history of retina cell types.
![](https://sites.wustl.edu/clarklabretina/files/2020/07/Retina_Explant-1024x768.jpg)