Uni-Tübingen

P8: cGMP and visual signal processing in the inner retina

Aims

To study the role of cGMP pathways for visual signal processing in bipolar cells of the mouse retina.

Questions and Methods

cGMP and Visual Signal Processing

  • What is the temporal dynamics of cGMP in inner retinal neurons (bipolar cells and RGCs) upon NO stimulation (studied via cGMP imaging)?
  • What are the effects of cGMP modulation in the inner retina on visual processing in bipolar cells (studied via glutamate and Ca2+ imaging), in particular with respect to spatio-temporal integration and contrast adaptation?
  • What are the effects of cGMP modulation on retinal output (studied via Ca2+ imaging in RGCs) in the healthy and diseased retina?

Boston Internship

Makino Lab

During the visit of the Makino lab in Boston, the doctoral students will be trained to learn the cGMP cascade and its modulation in photoreceptors.

Thus, with combined knowledge of cGMP both in the outer retina and inner retina, the doctoral student will gain an overview of cGMP-related adaptation through the entire retinal network.

Boston Co-mentor

Assoc. Prof. Clint L. Makino, PhD

Link to boston researcher lab

Doctoral Student

Dominic Gonschorek

© Dominic Gonschorek

Dominic Gonschorek obtained his B.Sc. in Biology at the Free University of Berlin focusing on Neurobiology and Biomedicine. He continued his studies by earning a Master's degree in Neuroscience at the Carl-von-Ossietzky University of Oldenburg where he primarily focused on neurosensory systems, experimental and computational Neuroscience. This combination led Dominic to pursue his doctoral studies in the lab of Thomas Euler. Here, he investigates the role of cGMP pathways for visual signal processing in bipolar cells of the mouse retina.

Key Publications

Franke K*, Berens P*, Schubert T, Bethge M, Euler T#, Baden T#. Inhibition decorrelates visual feature representations in the inner retina. Nature 2017;542:439-44 10.1038/nature21394.

Euler T, Haverkamp S, Schubert T, Baden T. Retinal bipolar cells: elementary building blocks of vision. Nature Rev Neurosci. 2014;15:507-19