Biography

Dr. Al-Ubaidi received a Ph.D. from Baylor College of medicine Cullen Eye Institute where he focused on effects of oncogenesis in the retina and then on mouse transgenesis.  As a faculty member at University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC), Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center (OUHSC) and most recently at University of Houston (UH), he has generated transgenic mice with mutations in different domains of rhodopsin to investigate their role in the overall function of the molecule.  He also has studied the role of the extracellular matrix in retinal function and structure by studying the effects of eliminating tyrosine sulfation, on extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. Currently, his lab is interested in studying the role of SOD3 in combating ECM oxidative stress, and in determining how the retina acquires and retains flavins and the role retbindin (Rtbdn) plays in that. He has more than 25 years of NIH funding for his research.