Meredith Gregory-Ksander, PhD

Meredith Gregory-Ksander, PhD, is an associate scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute, and assistant professor in the Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Gregory-Ksander received her PhD in Cell Biology, Neurobiology and Anatomy from the Loyola University of Chicago in 1999 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Schepens Eye Research Institute before joining the faculty at Schepens Eye Research Institute, Department of Ophthalmology, Harvard Medical School in 2004. With an expertise in cell biology and immunology, Dr. Gregory-Ksander has had a longstanding interest in how age-related changes in immune privilege and subsequent inflammation contribute to the development of glaucoma. Her laboratory has worked with several mouse models of glaucoma, including the pigmentary dispersion model in DBA/2J mice, TNFα inducible model, open angle glaucoma model in SGC a1-deficient mice, and most recently the microbead occlusion model. Dr. Gregory-Ksander has identified two critical mediators of ocular inflammation during the development of glaucoma, Fas ligand and the NLRP3 inflammasome. Current studies in her laboratory focus on how these molecules mediate protective immunity and immune privilege in the eye and how age-related changes in these molecules may contribute to the development of glaucoma.