Student has eye on research discovery

Thursday 23 February 2006

A PhD student from the University of Newcastle has found for the first time that nerve cells affected by Macular Degeneration actually cope with the eye disease by growing new cell connections.

Macular Degeneration is the major cause of blindness in many elderly Australians,” says Robert Sullivan, who made the discovery while working with researchers in HMRI’s Human Tissue Research Facility at the University of Newcastle.

“We found that the disease actually affects the whole retina, and not just the light sensing cells in the central part of the retina as clinically thought.”

Robert says that while some cells show signs of degeneration, the good news is that we have found that other nerve cells try to cope by sending out new processes to make new connections with nerves.

“We think this is an attempt by the nerve cells in the sick retina to try and repair the damage caused by the disease,” says Robert.

“Previously no one had observed whether this kind of change in nerve cells was possible in humans, especially in older people. We all tend to think that the human nervous system becomes less able to change as it gets older,” says Robert.

Robert saw that the nerve cells had started to grow new connections as they tried to communicate with other nerve cells, an event that was normally only seen in early development.

Robert’s supervisor, Professor David Pow says it’s astonishing that the human nervous system could turn back its clock 85 or 90 years so that the cells in the aged human nervous system could behave just like cells in the human fetus.

“The capacity of the human nerve cells to behave like fetal nerve cells and try to make new connections is exactly the kind of behaviour needed to allow repair in the damaged human nervous system after strokes and in response to spinal cord injuries,” says Professor Pow.

Robert has received national recognition for his discovery, recently winning a student poster prize at the Australian Neuroscience Society meeting in Sydney.

He plans to continue his research into Macular Degeneration, as the finding gives new insights into the disease which is critical for future investigations into new therapeutic treatments.

For interviews: Robert Sullivan on (02) 4921 7847 or Professor David Pow on (02) 4921 5620. Media release prepared by Kate Reid, Public Relations at the University of Newcastle, on (02) 4921 5351.