Projects
The lab uses state-of-the-art multielectrode recording to monitor spontaneous and light-evoked activity simultaneously from 30-90 retinal ganglion cells in mice with genetic eye disease.
Surprisingly, as rd1 mice become blind, retinal ganglion cells do not simply drift into silence as might be expected. Rather, they develop hyperactivity at approximately 10 times the normal firing rate, and sustain it for several weeks.
In doing so they pass through three stages:
· Normal spontaneous "waves"
· Increasing activity with temporary preservation of light evoked responses
· Sustained hyperactivity
Our ongoing projects build upon this fundamental finding...
Synaptic Pharmacology of Ganglion Cell Hyperactivity
Melanopsin Retinal Ganglion Cells in Retinal Degeneration
