Laxman Mainali, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and faculty member in the Biomolecular Sciences Graduate Programs, has won a National Institute of Health Research Project Grant. The five-year $1.74 million award will support cataract research using advanced microscopy methods. It is a continuation of a previous NIH grant for Mainali’s lab—the first such renewal at Boise State.
The NIH-funded project focuses on the molecular mechanism behind cataracts. Past studies have shown that the alpha-crystallin binding to the lens membrane increases with age and cataract, Â but the mechanism that initiates alpha-crystallin binding to the lens membrane is unknown.
Mainali’s lab has received NIH funding in the past. This most recent grant is a competitive continuation of a 2019 NIH grant that resulted in 16 papers on the role of cholesterol, cholesterol bilayer domains and the interaction of crystallins with membrane cholesterol and cholesterol bilayer domains in the human eye lens.