RPB Career Development Award recipient Gregory W. Schwartz, PhD, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has published a finding that opens the door to improving retinal prosthetic devices, targeting treatments to restore damaged retinal circuits, and improving early detection of retinal diseases.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. "More generally, our work will provide a template for brain mapping efforts throughout the nervous system," says Schwartz.
Video, courtesy Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, produced by Sarah Plumridge.
By employing a combination of established and novel techniques to measure connectivity and function in retinal neural circuits, Dr. Schwartz has made detailed circuit models to predict the response of the target cell to various visual stimuli. As part of his team's work, they have discovered many new retinal ganglion cell (RGC) types, for which they are seeking to identify unique genetic markers.
"Dr. Schwartz is a uniquely talented computational neuroscientist who has very novel ideas concerning the circuitry of the retina," said Nicholas J. Volpe, MD, Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "I believe this work will set a new standard for our understanding of how information is processed in the retina. The retinal circuitry maps that Dr. Schwartz produces will greatly facilitate our national mandate for brain mapping efforts throughout the central nervous system."
"RPB is extremely pleased that our Career Development Award to Dr. Schwartz helped him lay the groundwork for his recent, prestigious, five-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue this important work," adds RPB President Brian F. Hofland, PhD. "This is precisely the kind of outcome we envisioned in establishing this grant."
January 6, 2016
The new way to measure ocular aging opens treatment avenues for numerous eye diseases.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) and Research to Prevent Blindness (RPB) today announced the 2023 recipients of the RPB/AAO Award for IRIS Registry Research.
RPB acknowledges the passing of a dedicated former Board member.
Patricia Ann D’Amore, PhD, MBA, is recognized for ground-breaking contributions to the field of vision research.
Dr. Akrit Sodhi at Johns Hopkins Medicine has published a new study showing promise for an experimental treatment to prevent or slow vision loss in people with diabetes.
RPB launches awards in data science and Diabetic Eye Disease.
Get our email updates filled with the latest news from our researchers about preventing vision loss, treating eye disease and even restoring sight. Unsubscribe at any time. Under our privacy policy, we'll never share your contact information with a third party.
General Info | Grants | News & Resources |