How are complex neural circuits assembled in young animals? And how do they process information in adults? The retina may be the first part of the mammalian brain for which satisfactory answers to these questions can be obtained.My lab therefore studies the assembly and function of neural circuits in the retina. While the retina is about as complex as any other part of the brain, it has several features that facilitate analysis. Additionally, we already know a lot about what it does.

Following a long series of developmental studies, we used high-throughput single cell RNA sequencing to profile tens of thousands of retinal cells, and applied bioinformatics methods to categorize them. We then used the mouse “retinone” as a foundation for generating call atlases of the primate (monkey and human) retina, which differs in important ways from that of the mouse. We are now using these large datasets to address open questions about the development and evolution of retinal cells as well as their responses to injury and disease.