Vision Science research at WashU is conducted by 34 faculty spanning 14 departments.
Rajendra Apte, MD, PhD
Paul A. Cibis Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
- Email: apte@wustl.edu
Innate immunity and immune effector mechanisms in the retina; oxidative stress and cell death; models of developmental angiogenesis and neovascularization; inflammation and photoreceptor survival; macular degeneration
Ghazal Ashrafi, PhD
Assistant Professor of Cell Biology & Physiology
- Email: ghazaleh@wustl.edu
Uncovering novel regulators of glycolytic and mitochondrial metabolism at the synapse and their role in the pathology of Alzheimer’s disease
Steven Bassnett, PhD
Grace Nelson Lacy Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science
- Email: bassnett@wustl.edu
Refractive development, exfoliation glaucoma, establishment and loss of lens transparency, structural and functional characterization of fibrillin polymers in the eye
Andreas Burkhalter, PhD
Professor of Neuroscience
- Email: burkhala@wustl.edu
Anatomical, physiological and optogenetic study of the visual cortex
Burkhalter Lab
Shiming Chen, PhD
Dr. Bernard and Janet R. Becker Distinguished Professor in Ophthalmology
- Email: chenshiming@wustl.edu
Molecular mechanisms regulating photoreceptor gene expression in healthy and diseased retinas
Zhou-Feng Chen, PhD
Russell D. and Mary B. Shelden Professor of Anesthesiology
- Email: chenz@wustl.edu
Affective touch, itch, pain, GPCR and prosocial behavior
Brian Clark, PhD
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
- Email: brian.s.clark@wustl.edu
Analysis of the temporally regulated program of retinal cell type specification
Joseph Corbo, MD, PhD
Professor of Pathology and Immunology
- Email: jcorbo@wustl.edu
(1) Transcriptional networks in the retina; (2) the mechanistic basis of color vision; (3) the cis-regulatory basis of human uniqueness and neuropsychiatric disease
Aaron DiAntonio, MD, PhD
Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Professor of Developmental Biology
- Email: diantonio@wustl.edu
Neural circuits in development and disease
Tom Franken, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
- Email: ftom@wustl.edu
Understanding how the primate brain processes sensory information to perceive the world as an organized collection of objects
Geoffrey Goodhill, PhD
Professor of Neuroscience
- Email: g.goodhill@wustl.edu
Understanding the computational principles that underlie brain development, using a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches
David Gutmann, MD, PhD
Donald O. Schnuck Family Professor of Neurology
- Email: gutmannd@wustl.edu
Leveraging neurogenetic disorders to study normal brain development, cancer, and autism
Keith Hengen, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biology
- Email: khengen@wustl.edu
We take a “big data” approach to understanding the self-organization of neurons and networks in behaving animals
Tamara Hershey, PhD
James S. McDonnell Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience in Psychiatry & Radiology
- Email: tammy@wustl.edu
Understanding the impact of metabolic and neurodegenerative conditions on the brain, particularly during development
Erik Herzog, PhD
Viktor Hamburger Distinguished Professor of Biology
- Email: herzog@wustl.edu
Molecular, cellular and circuit analysis of circadian rhythms in mammals
Shin-Ichiro Imai, MD, PhD
Professor of Developmental Biology
- Email: imaishin@wustl.edu
Understanding the molecular mechanism of aging and longevity in mammals
Daniel Kerschensteiner, MD
Janet & Bernard Becker Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
- Email: kerschensteinerd@wustl.edu
Visual system neuroscience and vision restoration
Kerschensteiner Lab
Helen McNeill, PhD
Larry J. Shapiro and Carol-Ann Uetake-Shapiro Professor of Developmental Biology
- Email: mcneillh@wustl.edu
Understanding how tissue growth and tissue organization are coordinately regulated during normal development, and how loss of this control leads to human disease
Jeffrey Milbrandt, MD, PhD
James S. McDonnell Professor and Head of Genetics
- Email: jmilbrandt@wustl.edu
Axonal degeneration, regulation of myelination, neuronal energetics and mitochondrial function in neuropathy and neurodegenerative disease
Josh Morgan, PhD
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
- Email: jlmorgan@wustl.edu
Using advanced cellular imaging techniques to investigate how neurons organize themselves into image processing circuits
Erik Museik, MD, PhD
Charlotte and Paul Hagemann Professor of Neurology
- Email: musieke@wustl.edu
Molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration, with interest in circadian clock genes, glial function, and neuroinflammation
Jeanne Nerbonne, PhD
Alumni Endowed Professor of Molecular Biology and Pharmacology
Molecular determinants of ion channel expression, distribution and functioning
Rithwick Rajagopal, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
- Email: rajagopalr@wustl.edu
Pathogenic mechanisms in diabetic retinopathy and neuronal damage in diabetes mellitus
Alan Shiels, PhD
Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
- Email: shiels@wustl.edu
Molecular genetic mechanisms underlying lens development and cataract
Lawrence Snyder, MD, PhD
- Email: larry@eye-hand.wustl.edu
Information processing in the cerebral cortex
Paul Taghert, PhD
Professor of Neuroscience
- Email: taghertp@wustl.edu
Circadian physiology and behavior
Fumihiko Urano, MD, PhD
Professor of Medicine and of Pathology and Immunology
- Email: urano@wustl.edu
Identifying potential therapeutic targets by unraveling the molecular, genetic, and cellular mechanisms behind the Wolfram Syndrome phenotype
Philip Williams, PhD
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
- Email: prwillia@wustl.edu
Strategies to improve outcomes of nervous system injury and disease, regeneration and preservation
Andrew Yoo, PhD
Professor of Developmental Biology
- Email: yooa@wustl.edu
Generation of human neurons by direct cell fate reprogramming and modeling late-onset neurodegenerative disorders
Takeshi Yoshimatsu, PhD
Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences
- Email: takeshi@wustl.edu
Understanding the molecular and cellular basis of the functional development and regeneration of the vertebrate visual system and elucidating how disruption of these mechanisms leads to visual dysfunction
Chao Zhou, PhD
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
- Email: chaozhou@wustl.edu
Developing novel optical imaging technologies for biomedical applications including cancer research and tissue engineering