Cyrus McHugh

Cyrus is a vision science student at the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science since August 2022. Cyrus received his BS in Biochemistry from the University of Oregon in 2016. Prior to stating his PhD at Berkeley, he was a Research Assistant at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles for four years between 2018-2022, researching how novel hybrid action of GABA mediates inhibitory feedback in the mammalian retina.

Between 2016-18, he was a Research Assistant at Morgans Lab at Oregon Health & Science University, where he conducted research studying mice retinal cells and the effects of genetic defects in correlation with congenital stationary night blindness disorder. He also conducted patch-clamp experiments on HEK cells, dissociated Rod Bipolar Cells (RBC) and from retina slices and split preparation. His analysis was performed in Igor Pro (waveform analysis program). Cyrus' research included studying PCR reactions for transfection of HEK cells, Gel Electrophoresis for identification and analysis of proteins in RBCs.