About Us

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Marcus Kuehn
Markus H. Kuehn, PhD

Dr. Kuehn is the Principal Investigator of the University of Iowa Glaucoma Cell Biology Laboratory. He obtained a PhD degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from St. Louis University and has been on the faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences since 2007. He currently holds the rank of Professor with Tenure. He also serves as the Associate Director of the Iowa City VA Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss (CPTVL).

Affiliations

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Current Lab Members

Jordan Mayberry
Jordan Mayberry

Ms. Mayberry is a PhD candidate in the University of Iowa Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics. Her research is focused on the role of adaptive immune responses in vision loss due to glaucoma. She joined the Kuehn lab in 2022.

Shuyu Xian
Shuyu Xian

Ms. Xian joined the lab in 2023 as a research technician. She is developing advanced techniques to determine the molecular activities of T-cells in the retina.

Milan J.
Milan Joksimovic, PhD

Dr. Joksimovic is a visiting research scholar in the Kuehn laboratory. He is investigating mechanisms contributing to the development of Sudden Aquired Retinal Degeneration Syndrome (SARDS) and other non-paraneoplastic autoimmune retinopathies.

Riem
Riem Hassan

Ms. Hassan is an undergraduate student who began to conduct research in the lab during her high school years. She is currently involved in an independent study project.

MG Jones
Merri-Grace Jones, PhD

Dr. Jones is a post-doctoral fellow who joined the lab in 2024 after graduating from the University of Iowa Interdisciplinary Program in Immunology. She is investigating the contribution of age-related changes in immune function to the development of neeurodegenerative disease.

Dr. Catherine Lee
Catherine Lee, PhD

Dr. Lee is a Research Scientist who joined the lab in the summer of 2024. Her research focuses on the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to regenerate trabecular meshwork function in primary open angle glaucoma.

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Former Lab Trainees

Yuyza
Yuyza Irizarry

Ms. Irizarry joined the lab in 2022. Her project was to explore how mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) can be used to restore function to the trabecular meshwork. She moved to the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine in the summer of 2023 to continue her education.

Lin Cheng, M.D., Ph.D.
Lin Cheng, MD, PhD

Dr. Cheng is a graduate of the Central South University in Changsha. She is a stem cell expert and worked on the generation of retinal organoids in our lab. She moved to a new position at the University of Chicago in 2023.

Sarah Brumley
Sarah Brumley

Ms. Brumley was an undergraduate student at the University of Iowa. She completed an honors thesis project in 2024 to determine the contribution of endogenous multipotent cells to maintaining trabecular meshwork health and aqueous humor outflow. She now attends Medical School at the University of Kansas.

 Huilan Zeng, M.D.
Huilan Zeng, MD

Dr. Zeng was a visiting research scholar from Changsha, China and worked in the lab between January 2021 and May 2023. She investigated the contribution of T-cells to glaucoma pathology before returning to China to continue her medical career. 

 

Nathan Cheng
Nathan Chen

Mr. Chen graduated from the University of Iowa in 2020. After joining the Kuehn lab he contributed to projects related to retinal neuroprotection and tested novel adenoviral variants for their transmission efficiency in the retina. He became a Medical Student at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in 2021.

Cheyanne Godwin
Cheyanne Godwin, MD

Dr. Godwin began working in the lab in the summer of 2016. As a Research Assistant she became an expert in immunohistochemistry and maintained our rodent colonies. She started Medical School in 2019.

Oliver Gramlich, Ph.D.
Oliver Gramlich, PhD

Dr. Gramlich was a Research Scientist in the Kuehn lab from 2014 to 2019. His projects included investigations of the influence of autoimmune processes in glaucoma pathophysiology. He is an investigator at the Veterans Affairs Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss. In 2019 he joined the faculty of the University of Iowa Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and started his own laboratory. His current research is focused on the ocular symptoms and treatments of multiple sclerosis.

Frank Loyo
Frank Loyo

Mr. Loyo joined the lab as part of the Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) between 2018 and 2019. His projects included the generation and characterization of brain organoids, and the development of new mouse strains for our research. He is now a Research Associate in the Madison, Wisconsin area.

Kyle Gonsalves
Kyle Gonsalves

Mr. Gonsalves was a graduate student in the University of Iowa Interdisciplinary Genetics Program. He joined the lab in the summer of 2017 and was investigating microRNAs in ocular tissues and their roles in health and disease.

Alex Brown
Alex Brown, PhD

Dr. Brown is a Biomedical Engineer who worked in the lab in 2017 and 2018. In our lab he was a specialist for in vivo imaging techniques and electrophysiological tests. He went on to obtain a PhD in Immunology from the University of Colorado in 2023.

Kim Miller
Kim Miller

Ms. Miller was a student worker in the lab for many years before joining the lab full time in 2017. She carried out molecular and immunohistochemical analyses before heading off to medical school in 2018.

Wei Zhu, Ph.D.
Wei Zhu, PhD

Dr. Zhu was a post-doc in the Kuehn lab between 2013 and 2016. During this time she demonstrated the ability of stem cells to regenerate the trabecular meshwork and restore aqueous humor outflow dynamics. She then joined the faculty of the Department of Pharmacology at Qingdao University and started her own laboratory.

Dina Ahram, Ph.D.
Dina Ahram, PhD

Dr. Ahram was a graduate student in the University of Iowa Interdisciplinary Genetics Program. She was a member of the laboratory from 2010 until her graduation in 2014 and carried out studies on the genetics of angle closure glaucoma. She is now Senior Technical Director of Clinical Molecular Genetics and Cytogenetics at Quest Diagnostics.

Anamaria Manea, M.D.
Anamaria Manea, MD

Dr. Manea was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab in 2011 and 2012. She went on to complete a pediatrics residency at the University of Kansas Medical Center and is currently in practice in Nevada.

Juan Fernandez de Castro, M.D.
Juan Fernandez de Castro, MD

Dr. Fernandez de Castro was a research fellow in the lab between 2009 and 2010. He then completed a residency in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Louisville. He is now an ophthalmic surgeon in private practice in Florida.

Alina V. Dumitrescu, M.D.
Alina V. Dumitrescu, MD

Dr. Dumitrescu was a research fellow in the Kuehn lab between 2007 and 2009. She moved on to complete her residency training in Ophthalmology at the University of Kansas Medical Center and is now a member of the faculty of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa.

Bing Jiang, M.D.
Bing Jiang, MD

Dr. Jiang was a research fellow in the laboratory in 2006 and 2007. She has resumed her position as a Professor of Ophthalmology at the 2nd Xiangya Hospital of the Central South University in Changsha, China.

Chan Yun Kim, M.D., Ph.D.
Chan Yun Kim, MD, PhD

Dr. Kim was a research fellow in the Kuehn lab between 2004 and 2006. He is now a Professor of Ophthalmology at Yonsei University in Seoul.