Laura J Frishman, PhD, FARVO, FAAO
John and Rebecca Moores Professor of Vision Science
Associate Dean for Graduate Studies & Research College of Optometry, University of Houston
Biography: Dr. Frishman is a professor of Optometry and Vision Science in the College of Optometry at the University of Houston where she serves as the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and
Research. She received her undergraduate degree from Vassar College and her M.S. and Ph.D in physiological psychology/neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh. She did postdoctoral training in visual neuroscience at Northwestern University and the University of California San Francisco where she also was a research faculty member. Dr. Frishman has taught in both the professional and graduate programs and mentored research trainees in the College of Optometry. Her research has focused on refining noninvasive electrophysiological approaches for evaluating retinal and anterior visual pathway function in normal subjects and subjects with inherited or acquired diseases that affect visual function. Dr. Frishman currently serves as an Associate Editor for Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science and she is on the editorial board of Translational Vision Science and Technology. Previously she served as Editor-in-chief of the Journals: Visual Neuroscience, and Documenta Ophthalmological. She has served on US federal grant review panels, the NIH/NEI National Advisory Eye Council, and she is a fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (FARVO) and of the American Academy of Optometry (FAAO), and served as a board member of the International Society for the Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV).
Abstract: Chronically elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in the non-human primate (NHP) results in progressive loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). Longitudinal studies in this model have documented structural alterations of the retina measured using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and functional alterations measured using electroretinogram (ERG). For the studies to be described in the current lecture the OCT measures include standard tests for diagnosis and monitoring glaucoma: circumpapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness, macula ganglion cell/inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) thickness, as well as morphological measures of the optic nerve head (ONH), including the neuroretinal rim (NRR).The ERG tests focus on the photopic negative response (PhNR), a measure related to RGC function, originally characterized in the NHP model. Recent insights about susceptibility for neural and functional loss in the NHP chronic model of experimental glaucoma have come from studying effects on the ONH tissue of transient intraocular pressure challenges.