Jacqueline M Lopes de Faria

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Title: Deficient Autophagy Contributes to the Development of Diabetic Retinopathy

Abstract

Autophagy is a self-degradation process essential to maintain intracellular homeostasis and cell survival, controlling pathogens elimination, damaged organelles and nutrient recycling to generate energy. Alterations in autophagic flux have been reported in .the mechanism of several diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, diabetes and its complications. Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a microvascular complication of diabetes, affecting nearly 30% of retinopathy. In the development of diabetic retinopathy, pathways are triggered or repressed and autophagy revealed to be relevant in this devastating complication. In this presentation, the role of autophagy in the development and progression of DR will be discussed, especially in pigmented epithelial, microvascular endothelial and Muller cells, an important retinal glial cell.
 

Biography

Jacqueline M L Faria, MD, PhD completed her graduation at Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, SP, BRAZIL in 1990. After, she did residency in ophthalmology and post-doctoral fellow at Schepens Eye Research Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Back in Brazil, she finished the PhD program at University of Campinas. From 2000 and actually, has been Senior Scientist at Laboratory of Diabetic Microvascular Complications at Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Campinas, SP, BRAZIL and visiting professor at post-graduation course in the same University. Now, she is CEO of a nano-biotech startup focused in development of new treatments in ophthalmology (diabetic retinal diseases and related) for unmet medical needs. She coordinated 14 research projects, supervised 3 master´s, 3 doctoral and 2 post doctoral students; published 43 peer-reviewed papers in high impact International Scientific Journals with 970 times cited and 3 filled patents. She contributed with several reputed journals as independent reviewer.