Dr. Kevin Schneider is a postdoctoral fellow at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute in UC Irvine, Department of Ophthalmology. Dr. Schneider’s postdoctoral training involves working with Dr. Cristina Kenney and expanding upon his interest in molecular pathways, mitochondria, and aging. His current postdoctoral project involves studying the role of mitochondria in the development and progression of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Dr. Schneider’s specific interest is on how the mitochondria are able to alter nuclear gene expression and contribute to the development and progression of AMD.
After graduating from UCSD in 2005, he started graduate school at UC Irvine (UCI) with an interest in something “more biologically relevant to diseases” and wound up in a lab that studied several genes that help protect against oxidative stress. He focused his research on an animal model that was more susceptible to oxidative stress damage. Dr. Schneider and other researchers published a paper based on the mouse lines, one discovery that was found was that while these animals had increased levels of oxidative stress, they were highly resistant to diet-induced obesity. These animals remained lean, even on a high-fat diet, and it turned out it was a result of, essentially, supercharged mitochondria.
Looking for other labs with more mitochondrial experience, the researchers began collaborating with the Discovery Eye Foundation’s (DEF) director of research, Dr. Cristina Kenney in UCI’s Department of Ophthalmology, who helped them publish their major paper on mitochondrial function.