Lisa Ostrin received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. She then completed the combined OD/PhD program at the University of Houston College of Optometry in 2006. Following graduate work focused in accommodative physiology, she went to John Hopkins University for post-doctoral research in low vision and retinal prosthetics. From there, she worked as a Clinician Researcher at the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry, with a focus on myopia and associations with glaucoma. She has returned to the University of Houston as an Assistant Research Professor to continue her work in myopia and glaucoma. Dr. Ostrin is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a recipient of the American Optometric Foundation Ezell Fellowship.
My research interests include environmental and behavioral influences on circadian rhythm and eye growth. Light exposure has a close link with numerous aspects of human physiology and has been implicated in several different pathological processes including myopia development, circadian rhythm disturbances, mood disorders, cancer, and metabolic disorders. The intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) are an inner retinal photoreceptor type that respond directly to short wavelength blue light, and are responsible for non-image forming functions including circadian rhythm entrainment and pupil size. Ongoing projects in the lab include 1) measuring and correlating light exposure with ipRGC activity, circadian rhythm patterns, melatonin levels and refractive error, 2) determining the effects of blue light emitting devices (computers and hand held electronic devices) on ipRGC function and sleep/wake patterns, and 3) developing devices to continuously and objectively measure behaviors related to eye growth.
