Month: September 2012

I have a fascination with the evolution of the eye and are always looking for interesting papers that help describe from where, how and when vision came.  This paper, Molecular analysis of the amphioxus frontal eye unravels the evolutionary origin of the retina and pigment cells of the vertebrate eye by Pavel Vopalenskya, Jiri Pergnera, Michaela …

Continue reading “Notable Paper: Molecular Analysis Of The Amphioxus Frontal Eye…”

Phototransduction is the process by which photon capture by opsins in photoreceptors is transduced into a neural signal.    However, there are limits on visual sensitivity that are imposed by thermal means as opposed to the photochemical mechanisms resulting in activation of the phototransduction cascade. The mechanism of this limit has long been a matter …

Continue reading “Notable Paper: The Molecular Mechanism of Thermal Noise in Rod Photoreceptors”

This paper by Yumiko Umino, Nicolas Cuenca, Drew Everhart, Laura Fernandez-Sanchez, Robert B. Barlow and Eduardo Solessio examined late onset retinal degeneration in a model of diabetic retinopathy.  Specifically, this manuscript attempted to examine the impact on retinas from the Gcgr knockout mice with long term high dietary glucose to see if that rescues retinal structure …

Continue reading “Notable Paper: Partial Rescue of Retinal Function in Chronically Hypoglycemic Mice”