Teresa Puthussery, OD, PhD

Research Areas

Retinal Neurobiology and Neurophysiology

We are interested in how visual signals are encoded and transmitted by neurons in the healthy retina and how signaling is perturbed during the course of retinal degeneration. Ongoing projects in the lab are addressing the following questions:

How do retinal neurons extract specific features such as motion and spatial detail from the visual environment?

How does the structure and function of the inner retinal circuitry change in response to photoreceptor degeneration?

To address these questions, we use a variety of research techniques including patch-clamp electrophysiology, immunohistochemistry, high-resolution imaging (confocal, super-resolution, light-sheet and two-photon microscopy) and protein biochemistry.

Teaching

Vision Science 206B. Anatomy and Physiology of the Eye and Visual System

Instructor-in-Charge

Structure and function of the tissues of the eye, ocular appendages and the central visual pathways; basic concepts of physiological, neurological, embryological, and immunological processes as they relate to the eye and vision; appreciation of the pathophysiology of various disease processes; importance of anatomy and physiology in the medical approach to ocular disease processes (continuation of VS 106A).

Vision Science 206C. Anatomy and Physiology of the Eye and Visual System (Problem-Based Learning)

Co-Instructor

Problem-based learning approach using clinical case examples

Vision Science 260C. Introduction to Visual Neuroscience

Co-Instructor

Selected Publications

Link to Pubmed Listing
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=puthussery+t+%5Bau%5D

Link to Google Scholar Listing
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=O2wgr2IAAAAJ&hl=en