Scientist/Research Associate

David Williams is recruiting two research scientists to help lead a research program focused on understanding the diversity of the computations the retina performs on the retinal image before transmission to the brain.  The specific contributions made by each of the 20+ classes of ganglion cells to vision are largely unknown because many are rare and difficult to record from repeatedly, especially in the fovea, and it has not been possible to control individual classes of RGC to establish their role in vision in the awake behaving monkey.  Our laboratory has developed a suite of novel tools to overcome these challenges. Using the calcium responses of single RGCs to visual stimuli imaged with a unique fluorescence adaptive optics ophthalmoscope, our group can simultaneously characterize hundreds of individual RGCs in the living primate fovea, and return to these same cells over months or even years. We can also drive these same cells optogenetically, offering the exciting possibility to conduct psychophysical experiments on single cells or groups of cells with known physiology, revealing the visual role of each RGC class. Primate species available include macaques as well as marmosets.  Our research plan has implications not only for the basic neuroscience of vision but also for restoring vision in the blind.