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The overall goal of the research laboratory is to understand the biology of cone photoreceptors and apply this information to dissect the molecular basis of human retinal diseases. Photoreceptors are highly specialized sensory cells that are essential for vision, converting light information into electrical signals that are ultimately transmitted to the vision-detecting centers of the brain. While significant information is known about phototransduction and synaptic transmission in photoreceptors, surprisingly little is known about vital aspects of their function. The laboratory is currently focusing on fundamental questions in photoreceptor biology, such as how mitochondrial function is regulated by cellular calcium dynamics and how endocytic trafficking pathways are regulated by phosphoinositides. The overall health and viability of photoreceptors depend on the regulation of these processes. To tackle biological problems, the lab uses zebrafish as a model system due to their abundance of cone photoreceptors and conducts genetic analyses, quantitative microscopy, biochemical assays, and electrophysiology, having developed a large collection of tools and reagents for these studies.
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