Swiss OphthAward goes to Olivier Mercey of CentrioleLab
Every year, the Swiss Ophthalmological Society (SOG-SSO) has been awarding the Swiss OphthAward to young researchers in Switzerland or of Swiss origin for outstanding publications in ophthalmology or related fields. Three awards were presented this year at the annual congress held in Lausanne on August 31, 2023, including one to Olivier Mercey for his discovery of a "molecular zip" crucial to photoreceptor maintenance.
Hereditary retinal dystrophies (HRD) are a group of diseases representing the leading cause of blindness in people of working age. Retinitis pigmentosa is the most common HRD, with a prevalence of 1/4000. A central feature of these diseases is the progressive loss of photoreceptors, whose outer segment functions as a sensory antenna for light perception. However, it is not yet clear what molecular processes lead to photoreceptor degeneration.
To solve this problem, Paul Guichard and Virginie Hamel's laboratory has adapted a high-performance imaging method for studying the retina: expansion microscopy. With this technique, the retina can be magnified fourfold after inclusion in an expanding gel. The result is a resolution hitherto unseen in photonic imaging. Photoreceptors can be observed with unprecedented precision. In particular, this technique has enabled us to visualize the sub-cellular mechanisms involved in a type of retinitis pigmentosa.
One very interesting result is the discovery of a molecular zip, a "zipper" on the connecting cilium that links the outer segment to the rest of the photoreceptor. Olivier Mercey's work has shown that this zipper plays a decisive role in maintaining the integrity of the outer segment. In fact, in mutant mice, they were able to prove that the disappearance of this zipper led to the loss of the outer segment, resulting in the death of the photoreceptors.