A Conversation With Dr. Kinchington

Kip Kinchington, PhD. I have long been interested in the viruses that potentially cause blinding infections of the eye.  I have been a part of the Department of Ophthalmology at Pitt since 1991, working on the human herpesviruses that cause vision loss. I am particularly interested in how they switch between active growth for production of virus;, and a dormant “latent” state, in which the virus remains quiet in the neurons of the host for life. The sporadic reawakening of latent virus inflicts repeated damage on tissues:- when this occurs in the eye, it can devastate vision by clouding the cornea or even destroying the retina.  There two herpesviruses that do this are herpes simplex virus type 1 (which commonly causes cold sores): and Varicella zoster virus (VZV) the cause of chickenpox and the much more debilitating elderly disease, Herpes Zoster (or Shingles).  Zoster in the eye can be blinding, painful and have long term effects, leaving the cornea completely lacking any sensation. This opens the eye up to infections and iatrogenic damage.  As a molecular virologist, I felt the opportunity was ripe to combine molecular virology with ophthalmology to study how these viruses cause visual diseases. 

Pitt also offered a huge and exciting opportunity to collaborate.  I went on to direct a Molecular Biology core module of the NEI funded CORE grant EY08098 , something I have done now for more than 30 years.  Its mission is to provide molecular biology expertise to others who do not have the skills or knowhow to manipulate DNA, quantify nucleic acids and express genes in vectors or cells of their choice.  By directing the module, I was able to help many NEI-funded researchers and Investigators. My own  research programs use all these methods and skills.  The unit is kept up-to date in the ever-evolving methods, kits and techniques, so that they can be applied to many vision research programs at Pitt.

My current research focuses on VZV, which is not easy to work with: I am one of a few with the expertise to grow and manipulate it. I seek to understand how it causes pain, eye diseases and the problems associated with Shingles.  There are three VZV projects.  The first seeks to understand why Shingles is so painful.  For many Shingles acute pain can turn into severe debilitating long term pain called post herpetic neuralgia, or PHN. We have developed an exciting new facial model that mimics the pain seen in facial shingles and are using it and a footpad model to evaluate new pain-relieving treatments.  The second project is to understand how the virus infects neurons and nerve cells to stay quiet, and then what the triggers are to cause it to re-awaken to cause Shingles.  We developed a new cultured human neuron platform to examine how virus spreads between neurons (which it does in shingles) and moves up and down neurons to get from the eye to the nerve cell bodies in the ganglia.  We are testing ways to remove the latent virus from neurons using CRSPR-cas9 systems.   The final VZV project is seeking to understand why the live virus used in the VZV vaccines are attenuated for growth in human skin. We have several models of human skin and are probing the specific vaccine mutations that reduce skin growth.  If we know the cause of attenuation, we could improve the vaccines so they do not have the occasional problems associated with current vaccination.

Academic Affiliation

1986-1990 Research Instructor, Dept. of Biochemistry, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD 
1991-1996 Assistant Professor, Dept. of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Dept. of Molecular Genetics & Biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 
1996-2011 Associate Professor, Depts. of Ophthalmology and of Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA.
2011- current;  Professor, Depts of Ophthalmology and Molecular Microbiology and Genetics, University of Pittsburgh
2018-current;  The Joseph F. Novak, M.D., Chair in Ophthalmology Research
1991- current; Director, Department of Ophthalmology Molecular Biology and Gene expression/array Module CORE Facility