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Vinit Mahajan leads Stanford researchers in building eye-aging ‘clock’
Dr Mahajan is a professor vitreoretinal surgeon and scientist in the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University.
Dr Vinit Mahajan / (Image: Stanford Medicine)
Indian American Dr Vinit Mahajan led researchers from Standford Medicine to develop an eye-ageing clock using artificial intelligence and has found a way to measure ocular ageing, opening avenues for treatment of numerous eye diseases. The scientists observed at nearly 6,000 proteins in the fluid and found that they can use 26 of them to predict ageing.
The developed clock, according to Standford Medicine, indicates which proteins accelerate ageing in each disease and reveal new potential targets for therapies. Dr Mahajan and his colleagues intend to apply the clock method to other bodily fluids to develop more effective drugs for a variety of diseases. “This is one of the best connections ever made that suggests disease triggers accelerated ageing," Dr Mahajan said.
The researchers developed a technique — TEMPO, or tracing expression of multiple protein origins. By tracing proteins to a type of cell where the RNA that creates the proteins resides, TEMPO allows scientists to understand the cellular origin of disease-driving proteins.
“The first step in developing any kind of successful therapy is understanding the molecules. At the molecular level, patients present different manifestations even with the same disease. With a molecular fingerprint like we’ve developed, we could pick drugs that work for each patient," Dr Mahajan said.
The researchers found that some cells had shown accelerated ageing before symptoms appeared. Treating the molecular pathway early, Mahajan said, could prevent disease damage before it becomes irreparable.
“It is as if we’re holding these living cells in our hands and examining them with a magnifying glass,” Dr Mahajan said. “We are dialling in and getting to know our patients intimately at a molecular level, which will enable precision health and more informed clinical trials.”
Stanford researchers affiliated with the Byers Eye Institute created a biobank of eye fluid collected in the operating room. Researchers from the Aarhus University in Denmark, the University of Minnesota, Retina Consultants of Minnesota, the University of Calgary, the University of Iowa and Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System contributed to the work.
Dr Mahajan is a professor vitreoretinal surgeon and scientist in the Department of Ophthalmology at Stanford University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley; and entered the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California, Irvine.
He also did a residency program at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. He completed post-doctoral laboratory research as an EyeSTAR Fellow. He also specialized in vitreoretinal diseases and surgery at the University of Iowa’s Retina Fellowship Program and joined as faculty in 2008. He joined Stanford University in 2017.
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