New member of the ICTER ISC for the term 2024-2028, Dr. Leinonen’s research focuses on two projects: (1) investigation of a novel drug repurposing-strategy for the treatment of retinal degenerations (RD); (2) Homeostatic plasticity in the retina, its molecular mechanisms and implications for functional adaptation.

His group’s drug discovery program uses repurposed GPCR drugs. The researchers led by Dr. Leinonen have shown that a treatment with a combination therapy comprised of three GPCR-drugs slows progressive RD (Leinonen et al. 2024, Nat Commun). The next crucial task is to uncover the therapeutic mechanisms of our therapy. This will facilitate further development of the treatment concept, launch innovative drug development pipelines, as well as advance the concept to clinical evaluation.

Dr. Leinonen’s research team detected retinal adaptability to sensory defect in 2013 and their first paper related to this was published in 2020 (Leinonen et al., eLife).  Next, they aim to solve the molecular pathways enabling retinal homeostatic plasticity. This knowledge can help to find mechanisms of how the CNS adapts to injury and malfunction and can guide pharmacotherapies.

Dr. Leinonen and his group use the retina as a model tissue for plasticity, pharmacology and drug discovery research for several reasons, such as amenability for noninvasive imaging due to eye’s transparency, finely layered structure and well-characterized structure-function relationships, functional similarity to that of brain due to same neurodevelopmental origin. Arguably, the retina is the best-characterized neuronal system in the body.