Striatech
Journal Club
The Impact of Lateral Inhibition on Healthy Vision and Retinal Degeneration
Matteo Rizzi, Ph.D. - UCL Institute of Ophthalmology – Moorfields Eye Hospital, Visual Perception and Repair Laboratory
Live date was Dec 05th, 2024
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About the speaker
Matteo Rizzi, Ph.D.
Lecturer and Group Leader
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology – Moorfields Eye Hospital, Visual Perception and Repair Laboratory
Matteo Rizzi obtained his PhD at the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, UCL, where he applied optogenetics to the study of hippocampal circuits. He then worked at Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL’s Institute of Ophthalmology developing gene-specific and gene agnostic treatments for retinal degeneration and at RIKEN in Tokyo, Japan where he developed vectors for modulating brain function. In 2021 he was awarded a Career Development Fellowship to set-up his lab back at IoO/Moorfields and has since been given a Lecturer position. He also holds an appointment at the Timone Neuroscience Institute in Marseille, to enable late-stage pre-clinical development in non-human primate models.
Description
Matteo Rizzi will present his research, which draws on a wide range of advanced techniques, with a particular emphasis on optomotor behavior. His work highlights the impact of lateral inhibition in the retina on normal visual function as well as its implications in retinal degeneration. This research has led to the development of a promising gene therapy, especially suited for conditions involving focal photoreceptor loss, such as age-related macular degeneration. Additionally, he will compare findings from mouse models with data from human subjects, obtained through psychophysical methods.
Key Topics
- Lateral inhibition is key to maintain rod-mediated vision in the appropriate operating range
- Mice do possess a high acuity region, which can be used to model aspects of conditions that affect central vision (such as AMD)
- Optomotor behavior can be flexibly used to study these aspects of vision
Learning Objectives
The attendees will learn how mice possess a high acuity region in their retina and how lesions of this region can significantly affect visual acuity, as measured with optomotor behavior. Furthermore, it will be shown how modulating lateral inhibition can have positive effects on remaining vision following retinal degeneration.
Background Reading
Lateral gain is impaired in macular degeneration and can be targeted to restore vision in mice. Rizzi M, Powell K, Robinson MR, Matsuki T, Hoke J, Maswood RN, Georgiadis A, Georgiou M, Jones PR, Ripamonti C, Nadal-Nicolás FM, Michaelides M, Rubin GS, Smith AJ, Ali RR.
Nat Commun. 2022 Apr 20;13(1):2159.
doi: 10.103Focal Photoreceptor Loss8/s41467-022-29666-x.
Gene therapy restores vision in rd1 mice after removal of a confounding mutation in Gpr179. Nishiguchi KM, Carvalho LS, Rizzi M, Powell K, Holthaus SM, Azam SA, Duran Y, Ribeiro J, Luhmann UF, Bainbridge JW, Smith AJ, Ali RR.
Nat Commun. 2015 Jan 23;6:6006.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms7006.
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Q&A from the presentation
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