This Journal Club by Janos Groh et al. covers white matter aging and neuro-immune interactions. Aging is associated with progressive white matter degeneration. Dysfunctional microglia drive the recruitment and retention of pathogenic CD8+ T cells through chemokine-mediated signaling, promoting neuroinflammation in aging white matter. Glial–immune interactions contribute to structural and functional decline, with microglia–immune crosstalk as a key driver of age-related neurodegeneration.

This Journal Club highlights research by Rachael Pearson et al. on photoreceptor transplantation. Photoreceptor transplantation has long been proposed as a strategy to restore vision, but in advanced retinal degeneration it remained unclear whether the inner retinal neurons could still accept and process new inputs from donor cells. The study shows that human pluripotent stem cell–derived cone photoreceptors can integrate into end-stage mouse retinas, drive retinal function, and induce behavioral responses, revealing that even severely degenerated retinas retain the capacity to remodel in response to healthy photoreceptors.

This Journal Club features innovative research by Harvard’s Cepko lab, exploring gene-independent strategies to preserve vision in retinitis pigmentosa and other genetic forms of blindness. Using AAVs to enhance metabolic support, including MCT2 expression in retinal pigment epithelial cells, they preserved cone photoreceptors and maintained color and daylight vision across diverse genotypes.

This Journal Club features innovative research by Kim et al., who revealed that inhibiting RIP1 kinase protects retinal ganglion cells in preclinical glaucoma models. Their work demonstrates that targeting necroptosis and inflammation can prevent cell loss and functional decline, directly linking genetic risk to inflammatory degeneration and highlighting RIP1 as a promising therapeutic target for neuroprotection in glaucoma.

This Journal Club highlights groundbreaking work by Harvard Medical School scientist Bruce R. Ksander and his team. They were able to reverse aging in retinal ganglion cells, improving visual function after injury or in disease.

This Journal Club provides insights into Matteo Rizzi’s research on lateral inhibition in the retina, highlighting its impact on visual function and the development of gene therapy for age-related macular degeneration.

This Journal Club highlights the conservation of rod, cone, and melanopsin-expressing intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) between mice and humans, facilitating the translation of visual function studies to clinical settings. It examines early degeneration of ipRGCs in Alzheimer’s models and human post-mortem retinas, and discusses how non-invasive assessments of visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and pupillary light reflex in both species may serve as early biomarkers for Alzheimer’s Disease. Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity measurements were conducted using Striatech’s OptoDrum.

This Journal Club demonstrates the effectiveness of an AAV-based gene therapy in rescuing vision and restoring normal retinal responses in a mouse model of KCNV2 retinopathy, a genetic form of irreversible blindness caused by mutations in the Kv8.2 subunit of voltage-gated potassium channels. Efficacy tests were carried out with Striatech’s OptoDrum and ScotopicKit, among others.

This Journal Club will demonstrate the usefulness and feasibility of refractive error measurements in mice, and it will discuss how measurements with Striatech’s automated Photorefractor can elucidate mechanisms of refractive development.

Striatech celebrates its 5th anniversary with a top-class Symposium on the topic of translating visual restoration from mouse to human. Presentations will be given by Professor Eberhart Zrenner (University of Tübingen), Professor Constance Cepko (Harvard Medical School) and Miikka Terho (Pioneer Retina Implant Patient, Finland). In addition, the speakers will highlight important aspects and directions in this area of research in a moderated panel discussion.

This Journal Club provides insights into mechanisms that promote retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axon regeneration in vertebrates after optic nerve injury.

T.J. Hollingsworth presents his work where he characterized a new polygenic mouse model of inherited retinal dystrophies, the BXD32 mouse strain. He presents evidence that a proinflammatory environment in the retina supports and accelerates the degeneration of the retina and the loss of visual function.

Peroxisomal disorders and the PEX1-G844D mouse model for mild Zellweger Spectrum Disorder (ZSD), leads to retinal degeneration and vision loss. Catherine Argyriou will describe how her team used AAV8-mediated gene delivery to robustly and durably improve functional vision, retinal response, retinal structure, and biochemical metabolites in ZSD-mice.

This presentation will outline the pathobiology and visual phenotype of immune mediated optic neuropathies that include Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Neuromylitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD), and Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD).

In retinal vein occlusion (RVO), non-apoptotic expression of endothelial caspase-9 (EC Casp9) induces pathology including retinal edema, capillary ischemia, and neurodegeneration. Crystal Colón Ortiz presents mechanistic insights into EC Casp9 action, and the behavioral consequences such as contrast sensitivity decline.

Jana Remlinger et al. showed preserved visual function and ameliorated course of disease after anti-FcRn treatment in an experimental model using a monoclonal MOG-IgG to mimic MOGAD.

In this Webinar, Dr. Jeff Jamison will talk about “AcuiSee”, with which one can measure rodent vision based on an operant conditioning paradigm. Jeff is the developer of AcuiSee, and he now works as Director of In-Vivo Pharmacology at Experimentica.

It is difficult to measure small eyes of animal models. In this Journal Club, Prof. Frank Schaeffel presents his inventions for IR photorefraction and IR photokeratometry that facilitate such measurements. He focuses on the history, application, advantages, optics, software algorithms and calibration.

Some fish use active photolocation: Their eyes emit light to detect predators or pray in this spotlight. In this Journal Club, Prof. Nico Michiels from the University of Tübingen will talk about his fascinating journey in which he has discovered this phenomenon.

Neuroinflammation amplifies neural damage caused by genetic disorders or aging. Groh et al show that neuroinflammation has deleterious consequences for the optic nerve, and disease progression can be monitored with the OptoDrum.

Optogenetic gene therapy holds great promise for healing blindness. Hulliger et al have developed a new promoter that effectively targets human ON bipolar cells. This is an important step towards clinical applications of optogenetic gene therapy for restoring vision.

Nogo-A, an inhibitor of neural growth, prevents regeneration after injury. Blocking of Nogo-A aides recovery, also in the visual system after retinal damage. Baya Mdzomba show with our OptoDrum that visual behavior benefits from Nogo-A neutralization after retinal damage typically found in diabetic retinopathy or glaucoma.

The Jackson Laboratory will introduce their Neurobehavior Phenotyping Core, in which they also do visual acuity measurements. They will present two examples where the OptoDrum has been used to characterizte vision in animal models for rare disease: The Charcot-Marie-Tooth-disease, and Multiple-Sulfatase-Deficiency.

In vision research, observing the optomotor reflex (OMR) is an important and widely established method for assessing visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in rodents. In this event, we will hear about several applications of OMR measuremnts, ranging from quantification of retinal degeneration to characterization of night vision.