Drs. Gianluca Lazzi and Bryan Jones (UofU SLC) received an NIH R01 grant to study the retina in health and degeneration

October 1, 2024

In this project, the team will work on the construction of pathoconnectomes of photoreceptor to ganglion cell pathways in each stage of degeneration based on TEM images of diseased retina with a genetically-modified, monosynaptic G-deleted rabies viral tracing approach to visualize distinct retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) projection classes and characterize their dendritic morphologies. While the first (TEM-based reconstruction) provides unprecedented detail of morphological features of the individual pathways to ganglion cells limited to small areas of tissue and is not viable for mapping long range connections, the second (viral tracing) allows for the reconstruction of the entire retina ganglion cell layer, for all stages of degeneration. Combined, these two strategies will allow us to create a complete mesoscale connectivity atlas of retina and generate its global neural network, thereby resulting of a “first of its kind,” large-scale, morphological atlas of the four known phases of retinal degeneration. This project will result in unprecedented knowledge of the neuronal changes associated with eye diseases and the development of biomimetic therapeutics. Additionally, these models will be integrated in our parallel multiscale Admittance Method (AM)-NEURON computational platform, which integrates modeling of exogenous electric field application with neural activity of complex networks to provide insights into the physiological consequences of morphological changes on retinal signaling.