Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at University of Washington
Dr. Pepple obtained her MD, PhD Degree at Baylor College of Medicine. She then completed her ophthalmology residency and medical retina fellowship at Duke University. She also completed a fellowship in Uveitis at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her research interests include studying mechanisms of ocular inflammation using animal models and advanced imaging modalities.
Dr. Pepple’s laboratory is interested in understanding the pathogenesis of ocular inflammation (i.e. uveitis) and developing new therapies to treat patients with uveitis. Her lab is also interested in developing novel applications of advanced imaging modalities such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) and bioluminescence imaging in animal models of uveitis. Her lab studies two models of uveitis in both mice and rats. The first model, known as Experimental Autoimmune Uveitis (EAU), is a T-cell mediated form of uveitis that models some forms of posterior and panuveitis in humans. The second model, known as Primed Mycobacterial Uveitis (PMU) is a model of idiopathic anterior and intermediate uveitis that is driven primarily by the innate immune response to mycobacterial antigens. The lab is particularly interested in understanding the role of the chemokine CXCL10 in regulating the ocular inflammatory response in animal models and in patients with uveitis.
