Dr. Yacine Touahri

Title: Harnessing the regenerative potential of Müller glia in the retina: a
study of development and regeneration

Speaker: Dr. Yacine Touahri

Date/Time: Tuesday October 13th 9:30am-10:30am

Synopsis​: Degenerative retinal diseases cause permanent vision loss because the
mammalian retina lacks the regenerative capacity found in lower
vertebrates. This seminar will examine emerging gene therapy
strategies to unlock Müller glia derived regeneration by re-activating
neurogenic programs normally silenced in the adult retina.

Dr. Touahri will discuss how imprinted genes enforce Müller glia
quiescence and restrict their ability to re-enter a progenitor like
state, and how modulating these regulators creates a permissive
environment for reprogramming.

The talk will highlight recent advances using engineered, high potency
neurogenic transcription factors that enhance Müller glia conversion
into retinal neurons.
Building on these findings, the seminar will also explore how
transcription factors such as Neurog2 and Ascl1 govern cell fate
specification in the developing retina.

Defining how these factors establish lineage hierarchies and shape
chromatin accessibility during development provides key mechanistic
insight for designing transcription factor based strategies that can
be redeployed to drive Müller glia-derived regeneration.

For more information or to request a MS Teams link, please email Dr. Jason McDougall at jason.mcdougall@dal.ca