IoO Seminar Series

Marla Feller

Professor and Head, Division of Neurobiology Department of Molecular and Cell Biology & Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute University of California, Berkeley at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology

Marla Feller is Paul Licht Distinguished Professor in Biological Sciences and Member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies the mechanisms that underpin the assembly of neural circuits during development. Feller lab is interested in the mechanisms that guide the assembly of neural circuits during development. We use the retinas as a model system where we use two-photon imaging electrophysiology and a variety of anatomical approaches to address two major questions. First, we study how immature retinal circuits generate retinal waves -- a term used to describe highly patterned spontaneous activity in the immature retina -- and what role this activity plays in the development of the retina and the retina's connections to the central visual system. Recently we have focused on a class of neurons called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells as well as the role of waves in shaping glial cell morphology. In addition, we study the development and organisation of the circuits that mediate direction selectivity in the retina.