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  1. Gene Therapy Rescues Photoreceptor Blindness in Dogs and Paves The Way for Treating Human X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa

    This paper in PNAS by William A. Beltran, Artur V. Cideciyan, Alfred S. Lewin, Simone Iwabe, Hemant Khanna, Alexander Sumaroka, Vince A. Chiodo, Diego S. Fajardo, Alejandro J. Román, Wen-Tao Deng, Malgorzata Swider, Tomas S. Alemán, Sanford L. Boye, Sem Genini, Anand Swaroop, William W. Hauswirth, Samuel G. Jacobson and Gustavo D. Aguirre is a continuation [...]

    Feb 8, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  2. Generation of An Inbred Miniature Pig Model of Retinitis Pigmentosa

    A recent paper by Jason W. Ross, Juan P. Fernandez de Castro, Jianguo Zhao, Melissa Samuel, Eric Walters, Cecilia Rios, Patricia Bray-Ward, Bryan W. Jones, Robert E. Marc, Wei Wang, Liang Zhou, Jennifer M. Noel, Maureen A. McCall, Paul J. DeMarco, Randall S. Prather and Henry J. Kaplan describes the creation of a new model of retinal degenerative disease, specifically autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa in a miniature pig model, [...]

    Feb 7, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  3. Jumping Spiders Use Image Defocusing For Depth Perception

    A study out in today’s Science Magazine by Takashi Nagata, Mitsumasa Koyanagi, Hisao Tsukamoto, Shinjiro Saeki, Kunio Isono, Yoshinori Shichida, Fumio Tokunaga, Michiyo Kinoshita, Kentaro Arikawa and Akihisa Terakita proposes that jumping spiders at least, use image defocusing to provide depth perception.  Jumping spiders (Salticidae) are the largest family of spiders and have perhaps the best visual [...]

    Jan 26, 2012 — Read more 1 Comment

  4. Astrocyte pVHL and HIF-α Isoforms Are Required for Embryonic-To-Adult Vascular Transition In The Eye

    This paper from Toshihide Kurihara, Peter Westenskow, Tim Krohne, Edith Aguilar, Randy A. Johnson, and Marty Friedlander propose a model for the transition from embryonic to adult circulation in the eye  using a combinatorial gene deletion approach with over expression assays, examining astrocyte-targeted deletion of von Hippel-Lindau tumor suppressor (Vhl), hypoxia-inducible factor-αs (Hif-αs), and VEGF [...]

    Jan 13, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  5. Functional Activation of Glutamate Ionotropic Receptors in the Human Peripheral Retina

    This paper by Clairton F. de Souza, Michael Kalloniatis, Philip J. Polkinghorne, Charles N.J. McGhee, Monica L. Acosta examines glutamate receptors and their functional activation in the human retina.

    Jan 9, 2012 — Read more No Comments

  6. Notable Paper: Acute vision in the giant Cambrian predator Anomalocaris and the origin of compound eyes

    Because knowing where we have come from with respect to the evolution of vision is so important, this paper by John R. Paterson, Diego C. García-Bellido, Michael S. Y. Lee, Glenn A. Brock, James B. Jago and Gregory D. Edgecombe gets our nod for a notable paper.  It does not hurt that I have a [...]

    Dec 7, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  7. Notable Paper: Acute destruction of the synaptic ribbon reveals a role for the ribbon in vesicle priming

    This article by Josefin Snellman, Bhupesh Mehta, Norbert Babai, Theodore M Bartoletti, Wendy Akmentin, Adam Francis, Gary Matthews, Wallace Thoreson and David Zenisek examines the vesicular priming process at synaptic ribbons.

    Nov 8, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  8. Notable Paper: Long-term RNA interference gene therapy in a dominant retinitis pigmentosa mouse model

    Hereditary retinal dystrophies (retinitis pigmentosa, Leber congenital amaurosis, cone-rod dystrophies, macular degeneration) are characterized by loss of visual function, sometimes starting during early childhood, other times in late adulthood.  About 30% of these dystrophies are inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion (RetNet), caused by gain-of-function mutant alleles which encode a malignant form of a normal [...]

    Nov 2, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  9. Notable Paper: Localization of Melatonin Receptor 1 in Mouse Retina and Its Role in the Circadian Regulation of the Electroretinogram and Dopamine Levels

    I’ve watched the development of the circadian rhythm research starting with Joe Takahashi‘s work discovering CLOCK in the mammalian SCN back in 1994.  Since then there has been an explosion of circadian rhythm biology work including an I suppose, unsurprising amount of research in the retina proper. This paper by Anamika Sengupta, Kenkichi Baba, Francesca Mazzoni, Nikita V. Pozdeyev, Enrica [...]

    Oct 18, 2011 — Read more 1 Comment

  10. Retinoid Receptors Trigger Neuritogenesis in Retinal Degenerations

    This paper by Y Lin, BW Jones, A Liu, JF Tucker, K Rapp, L Luo, W Baehr, PS Bernstein, CB Watt, JH Yang, MV Shaw and RE Marc examines the neuronal sprouting or neuritogenesis components of retinal remodeling found in retinal degenerative disease and describes a control process for retinoid X receptors (RXRs) in neuritogenesis. 

    Oct 11, 2011 — Read more 1 Comment

  11. Notable Paper: Structural basis of PIP2 activation of the classical inward rectifier K+ channel Kir2.2

    The inward rectifying K+ channels (IRKs) are common ion channels that encompass seven distinct subtypes, each a potential target for pathology or a potential actor in various insults to the nervous system, the retina included.  IRKs in the retina are found in Müller glia, retinal pigment epithelium and on neurons in retina, so are fundamental to retinal [...]

    Sep 6, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  12. Notable Paper: Neural Organization and Visual Processing in the Anterior Optic Tubercle of the Honeybee Brain

    We here at Webvision have a certain fondness for insects and believe that our understanding of vision and visual pathways can benefit greatly from the study of insect visual systems.  Our understanding of visual processing is actually pretty limited and simpler visual systems to study from eye to brain are found in insects compared to [...]

    Aug 24, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  13. Notable Paper: The Newly Sighted Fail to Match Seen With Felt

      I missed this paper in the chaos and runup to ARVO, but its conclusions are remarkably compelling.  Imagine that you were blind for years, perhaps from birth and suddenly, you were able to see with perfect clarity.  Would you be able to recognize items like a pyramid, a box or a sphere by sight [...]

    Aug 22, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  14. Notable Paper: Increased Expression of Multifunctional Serine Protease, HTRA1, in Retinal Pigment Epithelium Induces Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy

    Efforts to explore chromosome 10q26, a major candidate region associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) have proven difficult and controversial.  This particular region of interest is two neighboring genes, ARMS2 and HTRA1.  However, efforts in trying to explore the functional involvement of either HTRA1 or ARMS2 in AMD have proven to be difficult and have [...]

    Aug 18, 2011 — Read more 1 Comment

  15. Notable Paper: Retinal Remodeling in the Tg P347L Rabbit, a Large-Eye Model of Retinal Degeneration

    This paper is the result of a collaborative effort between Bryan William Jones, Mineo Kondo and Hiroko Terasake, Carl Watt, Kevin Rapp, James Anderson, Yanhua Lin, Maggie Shaw, Jia-Hui Yang and Robert Marc. This work presents a substantial advance in models of Retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an set of inherited blinding diseases characterized by progressive loss of retinal photoreceptors.  

    Aug 4, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  16. Notable Paper: Virally Delivered Channelrhodopsin-2 Safely and Effectively Restores Visual Function in Multiple Mouse Models of Blindness

    This truly groundbreaking paper by M Mehdi Doroudchi, Kenneth P Greenberg, Jianwen Liu, Kimberly A Silka, Edward S Boyden, Jennifer A Lockridge, A Cyrus Arman, Ramesh Janani, Shannon E Boye, Sanford L Boye, Gabriel M Gordon, Benjamin C Matteo, Alapakkam P Sampath, William W Hauswirth and Alan Horsager demonstrates that channelrhodopsin-2, a cation channel from [...]

    Jun 16, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  17. Notable Paper: UNC119 is Required for G Protein Trafficking in Sensory Neurons

      Photoreceptors are specialized cells that elaborate a cilium which becomes the inner and outer segments of the photoreceptor that house photopigments (a beautiful TEM image of a photoreceptor cilium and its inner/outer segment can be seen here)….  

    Jun 14, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  18. Notable Paper: Tauroursodeoxycholic Acid (TUDCA) Prevents Retinal Degeneration in Transgenic P23H Rats

    May 23, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  19. Notable Papers: The Polymodal Ion Channel Transient Receptor Potential Vanilloid 4 Modulates Calcium Flux, Spiking Rate, and Apoptosis of Mouse Retinal Ganglion Cells

    May 19, 2011 — Read more 1 Comment

  20. The Vertebrate Eye and its Adaptive Radiation by Gordon Walls

    Apr 21, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  21. Notable Papers: Otx2 Promotes the Survival of Damaged Adult Retinal Ganglion Cells and Protects against Excitotoxic Loss of Visual Acuity In Vivo

    Apr 17, 2011 — Read more No Comments

  22. Notable Papers: Self-organizing optic-cup morphogenesis in three-dimensional culture

    I was blown away by this paper out of the Sasai laboratory at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology.  Essentially, the Sasai laboratory is trying to recapitulate the developmental process of the retina in a test tube in isolation from the rest of the live animal.  Its a stunning development that appears to demonstrate bilayered optic [...]

    Apr 14, 2011 — Read more No Comments