Category: Daily

This photograph of a young scientist in training is, a young Wolfgang Baehr seen in the Institute for Physical Chemistry at the University of Heidelberg in 1963.  Incidentally, one of Wolfgang’s sons is studying at Heidelberg University and looks shockingly like him in this photo. Wolfgang was born in Mannheim, Germany and studied organic chemistry while …

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I remember when the first discussion of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) started coming out.    My thinking at the time was: “Wow, cool concept… but how in the world could you stack enough opsins in two membranes to make for any psychophysical perception?”  In short, despite some years of predicting their presence, I did …

Continue reading “Interesting Review: Intrinsically Photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells”

The desire to restore vision, once lost is as old as man itself. This article by Noah Shachtman in Wired’s Danger Room documents the discovery of a 250 year old code complete with secret society.  Its interesting reading from a variety of perspectives and has some wonderful photographs of the text and “blindfold goggles”, but …

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Retinal degenerations are accompanied by retinal remodeling events.  These events alter the structure and function of the retina and involve to a large extent, Müller cells which seem to serve as pathways for neuronal migration.  This paper by Karin Roesch, Michael B. Stadler and Constance L. Cepko looks at gene expression changes in the Müller cells, one …

Continue reading “Interesting Paper: Gene Expression Changes Within Müller Glial Cells in Retinitis Pigmentosa”

This manuscript by Clairton F de Souza, Michael Kalloniatis, David L Christie, Philip J Polkinghorne, Charles N J McGhee and Monica L Acosta examines the distribution of creatine transporter in the aging human retina, particularly after retinal detachment.  The questions behind this paper have ultimately to do with examining markers of energy metabolism in the retina and any …

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This notable paper by Roger C. Hardie and Kristian Franze looks at phototransduction in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.  Drosophila melanogaster has a long history in vision research of informing our understanding of the biochemical processes involved in phototransduction going back almost 40 years to this paper.  However, the Hardie and Franze paper looks at transient receptor potential (TRP) …

Continue reading “Notable Paper: Photomechanical Responses In Drosophila Photoreceptors”

This paper in the Journal of Neurophysiology by Raymond C S Wong, Shaun L Cloherty, Michael R Ibbotson and Brendan J O’Brien examined properties of retinal ganglion cells types that are conserved through mammalian species by looking at 16 morphologically defined rat and cat retinal ganglion cell types.  Their work demonstrates morphologically distinct retinal ganglion cell types …

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