Yongling Zhu
Title: Inter-sectional genetic dissection of inner retina circuits
Biography
The goal of her research is to understand the visual processing in
the retina. Specifically, she is interested in how visual information is
abstracted by the complex inhibitory and excitatory interactions centered
around ganglion cell dendrites. The retina is an excellent model system for
studying neural circuits, but the complex wiring among bipolar, amacrine, and
ganglion cells within the dense, tortuous IPL impedes our understanding of how
visual information is processed. A major focus of our group is to develop new technologies
in the mouse model system to access to highly specific sets of neurons and
circuits for structural and functional studies with an increased spatial and
temporal resolution. We pair powerful mouse genetic strategies with an array of
advanced viral vector technologies to delineate and label cell types in the
retina, followed by electrophysiology, functional imaging and optogenetics to
dissect and analyze specific circuits. They use both discovery based and
hypothesis driven approaches to better understand how specific subsets of
neurons integrate into larger circuits that compute different neural
representations of the visual world.
Research Interest
Circuits and Behavior, Computational, Electrophysiology, Imaging & Microscopy, Molecular Neuroscience, Sensory Systems
