ISER

Four camera-type eyes in the earliest vertebrates from the Cambrian Period - Nature Early vertebrates, particularly myllokunmingids, possessed four camera-type eyes (a pair of lateral eyes and pineal and parapineal organs), which indicates that these structures functio...

New paper presenting rather compelling evidence that the stem-vertebrate Haikouichthys had paired lateral and supranumerary medial eyes (!!!), and proposing that the medial eyes may have deep homology with the pineal and parapineal organs.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Oxygen-free metabolism in the bird inner retina supported by the pecten - Nature While the photoreceptor outer segments in the bird outer retina have access to oxygen, the inner retina operates under chronic anoxia, supported by anaerobic glycolysis in the retinal neurons.

Birds have a thick retina devoid of blood vessels - so how do they ensure sufficient oxygen availability?
They don't - neurons rely on glycolysis, metabolizing glucose released from the pecten.

Insane new study that includes comparative data on lizards and crocs.🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The amount of truly stunning retinal research in avians coming out of Europe lately is making me jealous.

Such cooooool work.

ipRGC properties prevent light from shifting the SCN clock during daytime Nature - The inability of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells to shift the circadian clock in the suprachiasmatic nucleus during daytime is caused by light-dependent depolarization...

A new paper from my lab. I will have a full description soon. rdcu.be/eX1Ld

#FluorescenceFriday

A sky of light within ✨
This is the ganglion cell layer of the avian retina. The nerve fiber layer lies beneath like a soft green current, carrying quiet signals forward.

Sometimes to see the universe with its beautiful scattered stars, one only has to look inside.

I'm so excited that @christ3na.bsky.social 's paper describing temporal control of photoreceptor development in human organoids is out at Genes and Dev and we got the cover!

genesdev.cshlp.org/content/40/1...

genesdev.cshlp.org/content/40/1...

Studying vision across light levels? Interested in rod photoreceptors and related (patho)physiology? Matteo Rizzi, Kate Powell and I wrote a review on rod photoreceptor activity at daylight doi.org/10.1016/j.vi... . Free access link here kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F...

Hey, @drdorotask.bsky.social is here on Bsky!

Such cool work.

We think that retinas degenerate with time and that if all of us live long enough, we’ll get AMD or other neurodegenerative diseases.

But Greenland sharks manage to live for hundreds of years and repair their eyes.

How?

How ground squirrels enhanced their retinas - Scientific editing and writing experts - Life Science Editors Scientific editing and writing experts for manuscripts and grants

Nice summary on our paper on mechanisms controlling development and evolution of the cone-dominant ground squirrel retina, which is now in final form at eLife.
www.lifescienceeditors.com/2026/01/06/h...

This is a crucial study and moves us forward towards understanding fundamental biological questions about how cells integrate information related to how components within cells are regulated.

These are Nobel worthy questions and the folks who answer them are moving us towards that understanding.

The author of this study, @drdorotask.bsky.social is here on Bsky.

Finally out! We studied the retinas of the longest-living vertebrate, the Greenland shark, and found that the retinas remain remarkably healthy in animals around 150 years old. What is the mechanism? It may be a highly efficient DNA repair system. Enjoy!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Decoupling of visual feature selectivity in the retinocollicular pathway Schwartz and Matsumoto et al. show that visual feature selectivity for luminance and motion is coupled in the retina but becomes decoupled in the superior colliculus. This transformation reorganizes t...

Excited to share our new work on visual information processing in the retinocollicular pathway. We discovered that while luminance responses can predict motion responses in retinal ganglion cells, this prediction does not hold in the superior colliculus cells.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

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 👀🧠