Education:
BS (Honors) 1969 Bio./Chem./Math - Valdosta State College, Georgia
PhD 1984 Cellular & Structural Biology/Neuroscience - University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio
Postdoctoral Research Fellowship:
1984-1986 National Eye Institute, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development/National Institute of Health, Bethesda, Maryland
Started at USC: 1994
Research Topics: Signal Transduction, Vision Research, Neurogenetics, Cellular Neurobiology
Research Description
The research goals of the Mary D. Allen Laboratory for Vision Research include understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating vision and the biological clock. Clinical and basic science overlap and complement each other and are focused to a long term objective of determining the genetic etiology and prevention of visual abnormalities. My research uses a multidiscipline approach including biochemical and molecular techniques to address questions of how the visual system works.
Dr. Craft's group has established a cell line to study the cone photoreceptor enriched signal transduction cascade phenotype. Ongoing studies include the use of the new Affymetrix Gene Chip technology to determine the genes that are regulated and modulated in differentiation that may be critical for the long term survival of this retinal cell line. Additional structure/functon studies are ongoing to examine the signal transduction pathway of cone arrestin down regulation utilizing this system and molecular transfection of mutated and alternative spliced forms of arrestin. Future work will examine if these differentiated retinal cells will be useful in transplantation models to retain the cytoarchitecture of the degenerating retina.
The current research goals also focus on the understanding of the biological clock and light-modulated genes that regulate melatonin synthesized in the pineal gland and the eye. What activates and deactivates the signaling pathway through visual photoreceptors are unknown; however, the major components are members of G-protein linked, seven membrane spanning domain receptors. The pineal gland is a signal transducer converting external environmental cues into neuronal signals that are converted into internal hormonal signals.
Selected Publications
Wang QP, Jammoul F, Duboc A, Gong J, Simonutti M, Dubus E, Craft CM, Ye W, Sahel JA, Picaud S. - Treatment of epilepsy: the GABA-transaminase inhibitor, vigabatrin, induces neuronal plasticity in the mouse retina. - Eur J Neurosci [ 2008 ] Apr;27(8):2177-87 . PubMed
Chan S, Rubin WW, Mendez A, Liu X, Song X, Hanson SM, Craft CM, Gurevich VV, Burns ME, Chen J. - Functional comparisons of visual arrestins in rod photoreceptors of transgenic mice. - Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci [ 2007 ] May;48(5):1968-75 . PubMed
Zhu X, Brown B, Rife L, Craft CM. - Slowed photoresponse recovery and age-related degeneration in cones lacking G protein-coupled receptor kinase 1. - Adv Exp Med Biol [ 2006 ] 572:133-9 . PubMed
Haire SE, Pang J, Boye SL, Sokal I, Craft CM, Palczewski K, Hauswirth WW, Semple-Rowland SL. - Light-driven cone arrestin translocation in cones of postnatal guanylate cyclase-1 knockout mouse retina treated with AAV-GC1. - Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci [ 2006 ] Sep;47(9):3745-53 . PubMed
Bobu C, Craft CM, Masson-Pevet M, Hicks D. - Photoreceptor organization and rhythmic phagocytosis in the nile rat Arvicanthis ansorgei: a novel diurnal rodent model for the study of cone pathophysiology. - Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci [ 2006 ] Jul;47(7):3109-18 . PubMed
Zhu X, Wu K, Rife L, Cawley NX, Brown B, Adams T, Teofilo K, Lillo C, Williams DS, Loh YP, Craft CM. - Carboxypeptidase E is required for normal synaptic transmission from photoreceptors to the inner retina. - J Neurochem [ 2005 ] Dec;95(5):1351-62 . PubMed
Nikonov SS, Daniele LL, Zhu X, Craft CM, Swaroop A, Pugh EN Jr. - Photoreceptors of Nrl -/- mice coexpress functional S- and M-cone opsins having distinct inactivation mechanisms. - J Gen Physiol [ 2005 ] Mar;125(3):287-304 . PubMed
Pickrell SW, Zhu X, Wang X, Craft CM. - Deciphering the contribution of known cis-elements in the mouse cone arrestin gene to its cone-specific expression. - Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci [ 2004 ] Nov;45(11):3877-84 . PubMed
Vernier PT, Sun Y, Marcu L, Craft CM, Gundersen MA. - Nanosecond pulsed electric fields perturb membrane phospholipids in T lymphoblasts. - FEBS Lett [ 2004 ] Aug 13;572(1-3):103-8 . PubMed
Vernier PT, Sun Y, Marcu L, Craft CM, Gundersen MA. - Nanoelectropulse-induced phosphatidylserine translocation. - Biophys J [ 2004 ] Jun;86(6):4040-8 . PubMed
