News from the Labs
A major goal of Daniel Goldman’s lab is to identify strategies for restoring lost sight to those suffering from blinding eye diseases like macular degeneration and glaucoma. They use zebrafish as a model system to study retina regeneration because, unlike mammals, 
zebrafish can regenerate a damaged retina that culminates in restoration of visual function. The lab has found that Müller glia, the only glia in the retina, respond to retinal 
injury by dedifferentiating into progenitors that are able to regenerate all major retinal cell types. Their current research is focused on identifying the molecular mechanisms underlying this dedifferentiation, with the hope it will suggest new strategies for stimulating Müller glia dedifferentiation and retina regeneration in mammals. In a series of recent studies led by postdoctoral fellow Rajesh Ramachandran, the Goldman lab has shown that let-7 microRNA and Wnt signaling pathways are necessary for Müller glia dedifferentiation (Nature Cell Biol 12:1101, 2010; PNAS 108:15858, 2011). Most recently, in a paper published in the February issue of Developmental Cell with postdoctoral fellow Jin Wan as lead author, they discovered that heparin-binding epidermal-like growth factor is a Müller glia-derived factor that is necessary and sufficient for stimulating Müller glia dedifferentiation and retina regeneration. Finally, in a recent paper in the Journal of Neuroscience (J Neurosci 32:1096, 2012), graduate student Curtis Powell reports Apobec2 protein deaminases, proteins involved in DNA demethylation, are necessary for the injury-dependent reprogramming of Müller glia.
highly coveted honor is made possible through a gift from the late Dr. Ludwig Schaefer to Columbia University, and is intended to recognize outstanding work in human physiology. You can read about Becky's outstanding original discovery in the January issue of 
current issue of Nature a fascinating paper, Visualizing molecular juggling within a B12-dependent methyltransferase complex. The researchers note: “Post-world war II, only one vitamin (folic acid, B9) has been deemed worthy of requiring fortification of the US food supply. 
Folate deficiency impedes the transfer of single carbon units from folate to another vitamin (B12), and is associated with heart disease and serious birth defects. Interestingly, this same transfer reaction is also essential for the ability of certain microorganisms to live on the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. In this work, we use X-ray crystallography to provide the first view of how the transfer from folate to B12 occurs, revealing the requisite molecular gymnastics of the proteins involved.” Read more about this at