ISER

An image of a whole frog eye that has been labelled with a photoreceptor marker (cyan) and a nuclear marker (orange). The retinal is the striped tissue and the lens is the large round tissue with the orange interior. You can also see the optic nerve at the top middle of the picture (12:00).

Frog eye, frog eye. Can I have a confocal microscope to play on for 12 hrs a day again please? 👉👈🥺 🐸

The development of a single zebrafish retina captured on a light sheet microscope approx. every 12 hours from 1.5 days to 3.5 days after birth of the embryo. The retinal ganglion cells are labelled with Ath5:RFP (magenta) the amacrine and horizontal cells are labelled with Ptf1a:YFP (yellow) and the photoreceptors and bipolar cells are labelled with Crx:CFP (cyan). The image was created in the Norden lab at the MPI-CBG, Dresden. Credit text to Wikimedia Commons.

Development of the zebrafish retina captured on a light sheet microscope. Credit to @ichajaroslav.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

Had a great visit with @wertlaboratory.bsky.social and her students at UTSW. The students, faculty and staff were delightful in their company and conversations.

Thank you.

Excellent lecture by @bwjones.bsky.social for the UTSW Vision Science Seminar series

Another good photo captured by @suprajagv.bsky.social for @bwjones.bsky.social’s talk

Freshly out at @natcomms.nature.com ! Our @univie.ac.at @awi.de @viennabiocenter.bsky.social @ercgrantees.bsky.social research into neurogenic plasticity of adult worm brains, and similarities in stem cells supporting growth of camera-type eyes. www.nature.com/articles/s41... [1/7]

Trying to find some protocols for cone isolation from frogs that don't involve transgenics or freezing. There is a surprising dearth of information out there for cone isolation? Seems to be mostly rods. Is anyone familiar with any simple-ish protocols? 🧪 👀 #xenopus

S-cone-specific circuitry in the outer plexiform layer of a cone-dominant mammal | PNAS In the vertebrate retina, short wavelength-sensitive S-cones and their downstream interneurons play unique roles in both image forming and non-imag...

Extremely proud to share our publication on S-cone circuitry in the ground squirrel, newly available this week in PNAS. We've been staring at these reconstructions for a long time, and I'm excited for others to see the results. 1/n

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The retina’s rhythm Calcium waves facilitate the emergence of sight

Check out my Perspective article “The Retina’s Rhythm” which accompanies an exciting paper by Claude Desplan in Science. I highlight his discovery that waves of calcium are required to finalize the honeycomb-like structure of the Drosophila retina.

www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....

Synchronous bursts of action potentials in ganglion cells of the developing mammalian retina - PubMed The development of orderly connections in the mammalian visual system depends on action potentials in the optic nerve fibers, even before the retina receives visual input. In particular, it has been suggested that correlated firing of retinal ganglion cells in the same eye directs the segregation of …

I know because I discovered them.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2035024/
They are based on conventional synaptic transmission. And fortunately they stop once the retina has to do something useful, like seeing.

Hey folks, this is a very cool opportunity for peeps to do an amazing postdoc in Sydney, Australia in translational vision research.

Fantastic new paper from @pierre-mattar.bsky.social lab!

Ending my #FluorescenceFriday with this beautiful avian retina image depicting the beautiful stratification in the avian eyes.
This is where complexity meets art.
#retina #avian #bird #plexiformlayer

Axonal pathfinding of zebrafish retinal ganglion cells forms the optic nerve. Credit to Dr. Matthew Bostock @houartlab.bsky.social. #ZebrafishZunday 🧪

Excellent work @victorcalbiagueg.bsky.social !!!

Downregulation of Transducin Delays Photoreceptor Degeneration in P23H Rhodopsin Retinitis Pigmentosa In inherited blinding diseases, such as Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP), photoreceptors progressively degenerate, eventually leading to blindness. Unfortunately, effective treatments to prevent or delay vis...

Our new preprint is out.

Our study on Retinitis Pigmentosa animal model shows improved photoreceptor survival when rod transducin, a key protein involved in light signaling, is reduced.

@fvinberg.bsky.social
@moraneyecenter.bsky.social
@utah.edu
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In the retina, amacrine cells boost contrast by silencing nearby signals, helping your brain detect edges and details. Retinal ganglion cells then send that refined picture to your brain through the optic nerve.
Data from @neuralmapping.bsky.social 👀🧠

The Rod Bipolar Cell Pathway Contributes To Surround Responses In OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells Sensory neurons can be influenced by stimuli beyond their receptive field center, yet the mechanisms underlying this surround modulation remain poorly understood. In the retina, many OFF ganglion cell...

🚨 New preprint out from our lab!
📄 The Rod Bipolar Cell Pathway Contributes to Surround Responses in OFF Retinal Ganglion Cells
👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In Fruit Fly Eyes, UMass Boston Researcher Sees Potential Medical Discoveries Jens Rister, an associate professor in UMass Boston’s biology department, has just been awarded more than $1,700,000 in funding from the National Eye Institute of the NIH to research a protein that gu...

A new article on our National Eye Institute (NEI) - funded project on the mechanisms underlying color vision!
@umassboston.bsky.social
🪰👀🧪
www.umb.edu/news/recent-...

A photo looking down on 4 sets of feet in shoes.

4 sets of vision researcher feet

@john-ash8831.bsky.social
@fvinberg.bsky.social
Jeffrey Goldberg
And @bwjones.bsky.social

The evolutionary origins of synaptic proteins and their changing roles in different organisms across evolution Nature Reviews Neuroscience - Recent studies have shed further light on the evolutionary origins of chemical synapses, In this Review, Colgren and Burkhardt explore how ancient proteins were...

First neurons didn’t appear overnight. We trace their roots to ancient secretory cells - showing how lifestyle & behavior shaped the evolution of first synapses.🧠🌊 #Evolution #Neuroscience

Our latest in @natrevneuro.nature.com
Link: rdcu.be/eMX3E

@jeffcolgren.bsky.social @msarscentre.bsky.social

Black and white portrait of Vision Scientist Joanna Hagen.

Portrait: Joanna Hagen (In My Office)
bryanwjones.com/2025/10/port...
#scientist #VisionScientist

Subretinal Photovoltaic Implant to Restore Vision in Geographic Atrophy Due to AMD | NEJM Geographic atrophy due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of irreversible blindness and affects more than 5 million persons worldwide. No therapies to restore vision in ...

👁️ UPMC Vision Institute is restoring sight! The PRIMA wireless retinal implant + camera glasses helped patients with advanced macular degeneration regain functional vision. Over 80% saw measurable improvement. #VisionRestoration #Neuroprosthetics #UPMC #Pitt www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Thanks Bryan! Nice pic of me. I don't even remember you taking it. Eagerly awaiting the Visionarium pics 😊

A black and white portrait of a Kazakh student standing in a doorway in Prague.

Finally got around to posting the snapshots of walking around in Prague after the RD 2025 Meeting: bryanwjones.com/2025/09/walk...

Black and white portrait of vision scientist and biochemist Yuanyuan Chen.

Portrait: Yuanyuan Chen
#scientist #VisionScientist #biochemist
bryanwjones.com/2025/10/port...

Maison Deyrolle Avrill, 1953 by Robert Doisneau

A horizontally oriented inhibitory neuron (yellow) spans the mediolateral axis of the superficial superior colliculus, with dense axonal arborization suggestive of a role in collicular surround suppression. Retinal ganglion cell terminals expressing ChR2 are shown in cyan (following intraocular AAV injection), while magenta highlights VGAT+ neurons labeled via a reporter AAV-tdTomato in a VGAT-Cre mouse. Image credit Dr. Peng Cui

#Visual #salience generation involves center-surround dynamics, but what performs these computations? This study shows that the #SuperiorColliculus encodes center-surround dynamics under isolated conditions, and provides insights into the circuit implementation @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4n7RpsA

#FluorescenceFriday 🌿🔬 post:
Avian retina transduced with my AAVs carrying the #GluSNFR biosensor.
Bright blobs at the top mark photoreceptor terminals; meanwhile below, an RGC connects beautifully with bipolar cells, giving a glimpse of retinal circuitry in action.
#Retina #Neuroscience #AAV #2-P

Dr. Diane Bovenkamp at BrightFocus Foundation's Glaucoma Fast Track workshop in Atlanta, GA. Glaucoma Fast Track is the official pre-symposium workshop to the International Society for Eye Research (ISER)/BrightFocus Glaucoma Symposium: Concepts and Breakthroughs in Glaucoma.

Researchers at BrightFocus Foundation's Glaucoma Fast Track workshop in Atlanta, GA. Glaucoma Fast Track is the official pre-symposium workshop to the International Society for Eye Research (ISER)/BrightFocus Glaucoma Symposium: Concepts and Breakthroughs in Glaucoma.

Speakers Michael Elliott, PhD, Robert W. Nickells, PhD, Rebecca Sappington, PhD, and Colleen McDowell at BrightFocus Foundation's Glaucoma Fast Track workshop. Glaucoma Fast Track is the official pre-symposium workshop to the International Society for Eye Research (ISER)/BrightFocus Glaucoma Symposium: Concepts and Breakthroughs in Glaucoma.

Bri McWhorter speaking at BrightFocus Foundation's Glaucoma Fast Track workshop in Atlanta, GA.

Team BrightFocus Foundation is on the ground in Atlanta for our #GlaucomaFastTrack program, the official pre-symposium workshop to the ISER/BrightFocus Glaucoma Symposium.

Glaucoma Fast Track brings together top researchers from across the globe to accelerate vision research. 💪 🔬