Dr. Gould studies a variety of developmental and progressive diseases (ocular dysgenesis, glaucoma, optic nerve hypoplasia, retinal degeneration, cerebrovascular disease, hemorrhagic stroke, cerebral cortical development and muscular dystrophy). The common thread through these seemingly disparate diseases is that all can be caused by mutations in genes encoding basement membrane proteins. Far from being simply ‘structural’ components, basement membrane proteins participate in dynamic ways to influence cell proliferation, migration and differentiation and are important factors in development and disease. To address these problems he employs genetic tools including conditional mutants, an allelic series, modifiers, molecular biology, and human genetics.