Funding: Eye eye

10 December 2007

Three Neuroscience and Mental Health programme grants will explore vision, from retinal development to mapping in the brain.

Professors William Harris and Christine Holt (University of Cambridge) will explore how the neural ectoderm in zebrafish and frog embryos develops into the retina, including how retinal stem cells arise and how they 'decide' which specific type of neuron to become.

Zebrafish will also play a part in the research of Leon Lagnado (Medical Research Council). He plans to explore the activity across interconnected neurons in the zebrafish retina in order to understand better the synaptic interactions that process visual information.

Lastly, Professor David Willshaw from the University of Edinburgh and colleagues from London and Cambridge will generate computer models to investigate the formation of connections between the retina and the visual parts of the brain.

Image: Zebrafish eye development; Dr Steve Wilson, Wellcome Images