My background is in neuroscience, microscopic anatomy (histology), and histopathology. I have an interest in neurological disorders, primarily those with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations associated with visual dysfunction. I am also interested in the melanopsin class of retinal ganglion cells and why they often appear resistant to various types of mtDNA mutations and/or cellular stress. Our lab primarily investigates human postmortem tissues at the LM and TEM level. Though our lab is historically known for its research on Leber hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON), our current focus is to investigate visual dysfunction in Alzheimer disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD) by characterizing the abnormal cellular architecture of the retina and optic nerve we have observed in earlier studies.