1) Introduction to course will cover all type of
retinal cells in a typical mammalian retina and their
unique architecture.
2) Fundamentals of retinal cell biology; visual cycle,
retinal circuitry as well as signal transmission to
receptive fields in brain will be included.
3) A more depth organizational perspective will be
given by cross comparing several organisms
including human, mouse, octopus, jellyfish,
drosophila, sea urchin and further.
4) An evolutionary comparison of retinal cell types
and their origin will be covered.
5) Finally, retinal development and its gene
regulatory networks will be studied. Specific
attention will be given to the transcription factors
including Math5, Pou4f1, Pou4f2, NeuroD1 and
especially Pax6 which can form ectopic eyes solely
by its overexpression in flies.
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