About Us » FFB Funded Researchers
Wolfgang Baehr, Ph.D.
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Ralph and Mary Tuck Professor of Ophthalmology, John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132. Adjunct Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy, and Adjunct Professor of Biology, University of Utah. Director, Wynn Center for the Study of Retinal Degenerations. Dr. Wolfgang Baehr was born in Mannheim, Germany, and studied organic chemistry at the University of Heidelberg (Ph.D. 1970, summa cum laude). His career in the field of “retina research” was launched in the Department of Biochemistry, Princeton University, in 1976, in the laboratory of Dr. Meredithe L. Applebury. After intermediate positions at Purdue University and the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana, Dr. Baehr joined the faculty at the Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, Texas, as assistant professor in 1988. He was awarded a Jules and Doris Stein Research to Prevent Blindness professorship from 1987 – 1994. Major achievements of this period were: generation of one of the first transgenic mouse models for autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa, identification of specific gene defects in the rd1 mouse and the rcd1 Irish setter, and the identification of GCAP1 and GCAP2 as Ca2+-dependent activators of guanylate cyclase. In 1995, Dr. Baehr was appointed Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of a Foundation Fighting Blindness Center at the John A. Moran Eye Center, University of Utah. His research addresses the biochemistry and molecular biology of phototransduction, the visual cycle, and transport of membrane proteins in photoreceptors with focus on gene defects causative for human retina disease. Outstanding accomplishments at the University of Utah were the generation of numerous transgenic and knockout animal models (e.g., Guca1a, Guca1b, Rdh8, Rdh12, Gucy2f, Pde6d, Lrat), important resources for gene-based and pharmacological therapies. In his basic science career, Dr. Baehr has published or co-authored more than 155 manuscripts -- covering topics in chemistry, biophysics, biochemistry, molecular biology, bacteriology, infectious disease and mouse genetics. |
