Possible Rotation Projects:
- Functional validation of enhancers in the developing retina.
- Analysis of the role of chromatin-associated genes during retinal differentiation.
Training Technologies Used:
- Immunostaining
- Mouse knockouts
- Human retinal organoids
- Next Gen Sequencing
- PCR
- B.S., Biology, University of Aleppo, 1994
- M.S., Zoology, Texas Tech University, 2005
- Ph.D.,Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Utah, 2011
Davis ED*, Khan A* and Aldiri I. 2026. Ezh2 Control of Bivalent Genes Fine-Tunes Developmental Competence during Retinogenesis. IOVS 67, 18. *These authors contributed equally.
Bian F*, Golestaneh K*, Davis E*, Khan A*, Nicholson B, Daghsni M, Flohr K, Liu S, da Silva S, Pennacchio L and Aldiri I. 2025. SOX2-Driven Enhancer Landscape Defines the Transcriptional Architecture of Retinogenesis. Development. 2025;152(23). *These authors contributed equally.
Chatterjee S*, Ghosh S*, Sin Z, Babu VS, Preval LV, Davis E, Tran N, Bammidi S, Gautam P, Hose S, Sergeev Y, Flores-Bellver M, RitterK, Jessen H, Aldiri I, Sinha D, Guha P. Age-Dependent Histone Deacetylase 3 Regulation by betaA3/A1-Crystallin and Inositol Hexaphosphate in Retinal Pigmented Epithelial Cells Reveals a Novel Pathway in Age-Related Macular Degeneration. Aging Cell. 2025;24(9):e70163. Epub 20250715. *These authors contributed equally.
Mehta K*, Daghsni M*, Raeisossadati R, Xu Z, Davis E, Naidich A, Wang B, Tao S, Pi S, Liu S, Kostka D, Chen W, Gross J, Kuwajima T, Aldiri I. A cis-regulatory module underlies retinal ganglion cell genesis and axonogenesis. Cell Rep. 2024;43(6):114291. Epub 20240531. *These authors contribute equally.
Bian F, Daghsni M, Lu F, Liu S, Gross JM, Aldiri I. Functional analysis of the Vsx2 super-enhancer uncovers distinct cis-regulatory circuits controlling Vsx2 expression during retinogenesis. Development. 2022;149(15). Epub 20220808. doi: 10.1242/dev.200642.
Aldiri I*, Xu BS*, Wang L, Chen X, Hiler D, Griffiths L, Valentine M, Shirinifard A, Thiagarajan S, Sablauer A, Barabas M, Zhang J, Johnson D, Frase S , Zhou X, Easton J, Zhang J, Mardis ER, Wilson RK, Downing, Dyer MA. The Dynamic Epigenetic Landscape of the Retina During Development, Reprogramming, and Tumorigenesis. Neuron. 2017;94(3):550. *These authors contributed equally.
Our laboratory investigates the genetic architecture governing the formation and function of distinct retinal cell types. Many disease-associated sequence variants in the human retina localize to non-coding regions, and we employ state-of-the-art genomic profiling to define how these elements initiate and drive the progression of retinal disease. Building on our prior work mapping human and mouse enhancer elements whose activity correlates with the expression of genes essential to retinal cell genesis, we are now functionally validating these enhancers in mouse, human organoids and zebrafish models to determine how the non-coding genome shapes retinal neuron production.
