Vision Loss and Blindness
Vision begins in the retina of the eye, where neurons detect brightness, color, contrast and motion in the outside world. As visual information is relayed to more and more complex areas of the brain, features of the visual scene become more sophisticated and give rise to visual perception and misperception, such as visual illusions. In diseases such as age-related macular degeneration or glaucoma, neurons in the retina die, resulting in vision loss and eventually, blindness. Understanding how neurons normally function in the visual system is critical for understanding how best to preserve and restore visual function. UC Davis is home to one of the largest and most successful groups of Vision Research faculty and clinical care providers, anchored by the Center for Vision Sciences and the Eye Center, and supported by a National Eye Institute (NEI)-funded Vision Core grant and an NEI Vision Sciences T32 Training Program. 30 faculty members from 8 departments and 3 centers work in this area. This team includes a wide array of expertise, including molecular biologists, psychologists, physiologists, neuroscientists, mathematicians, engineers and clinical ophthalmologists.
Faculty studying vision loss and blindness
| James B. Ames, Ph.D. | Use NMR and other biophysical techniques to elucidate the molecular structure and function of neuronal calcium sensor proteins that regulate phototransduction in vision and other signal transduction processes |
| David Bissig, M.D., Ph.D. | Alzheimer's disease; dementia |
| Ken Britten, Ph.D. | Cortical contributions to visual perception and visually guided action |
| Nadean Brown, Ph.D. | Molecular mechanisms regulating the formation of the mammalian lens and retina |
| Marie E. Burns, Ph.D. | Photoreceptor physiology and degeneration, neuroinflammation in the retina |
| Gino Cortopassi, Ph.D. | Pharmacological amelioration of Neurodegeneration (Mitochondrial and Shc strategies) |
| Paul G.FitzGerald, Ph.D. | Ocular lens composition |
| Joy J. Geng, Ph.D. | Mechanisms of attentional control |
| Tom Glaser, M.D., Ph.D. | Genetic basis of mammalian eye development and congenital eye malformations |
| John M. Henderson, Ph.D. | Active Vision and Visual Cognition |
| Andrew Ishida, Ph.D. | Retinal physiology |
| Anna La Torre, Ph.D. | Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal progenitor competence and differentiation |
| Wilsaan M. Joiner, Ph.D. | Sensorimotor integration, motor learning/control, and clinical applications |
| Ravi S. Jonnal, Ph.D. | Retinal neurons; develop methods to observe the anatomy and physiology of these cells in the living human eye |
| Leah Krubitzer, Ph.D. | Cortical evolution and development |
| Brian Leonard, D.V.M, Ph.D. | Ocular biology and vision science |
| George (Ron) Mangun, Ph.D. | Cognitive neuroscience of attention |
| Nicholas Marsh-Armstrong, Ph.D. | Neuron glia interactions; glaucoma |
| Ala Moshiri, M.D., Ph.D. | Retinal cell replacement through transplantation of photoreceptors to the retina |
| Christopher Murphy, DVM, Ph.D. | Modulation of cell behaviors and corneal wound healing by trophic factors; the modulation of cell behaviors by topographic features of the substratum; comparative ocular functional morphology; and the development of improved solutions for organ storage prior to transplantation |
| Lisa Oakes, Ph.D. | Origins and early development of mental abilities in infancy |
| Edward N. Pugh, Jr., Ph.D. | Phototransduction in mouse cone photoreceptors |
| Paul Sieving, M.D., Ph.D. | Ophthalmology, inherited retinal and macular dystrophies, retinal physiology and genetics |
| Vivek Srinivasan, Ph.D. | Biomedical optics, neuroimaging, vision, photonics, microscopy |
| Sara M. Thomasy, DVM, Ph.D. |
Corneal wound healing; large animal models of ophthalmic disease; glaucoma antiviral therapy for feline herpes virus; ocular pharmacology and toxicology |
| Richard Tucker, Ph.D. | Cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions, cell motility and differentiation |
| W. Martin Usrey, Ph.D. | Neural circuit activity, behavior and perception underlrying vision |
| Glenn Yiu, M.D., Ph.D. |
Translational research in retinal disease—pathophysiology, animal models, gene editing/therapy and preclinical studies with special interests on live imaging, biophotonics and nonhuman primate research |
| Min Zhao, M.D., Ph.D. | Bioelectricity / bioelectronics-guided cell migration and growth in wound healing and regeneration |
| Robert J. Zawadzki, Ph.D. | Development of new instrumentation for high-resolution in vivo retina imaging |