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Elio Raviola, M.D.

Bullard Professor of Neurobiology

Harvard Medical School
Dept of Neurobiology, B2-201
220 Longwood Ave
Boston, MA 02115
Telephone: 617-432-1742
Fax: 617- 734-7557
Email:elio_raviola@hms.harvard.edu
Predocs: 0 Postdocs: 0 Completed PhD's: 0

 Elio Raviola

The objective of our research is to understand how the retina of mammals analyzes the visual world and encodes its spatial, temporal and chromatic contrast into a message of action potentials for safe sending to the brain. We investigate which chemical messages are converging upon each type of retinal neuron, the weight of these messages, their destination at the cell surface and their neuron of origin. To this purpose we combine molecular biology with microscopy and electrophysiology in the study of the functional wiring of the mouse retina. Homogeneous populations of retinal neurons are labeled by introducing into the mouse genome chimeric constructs consisting of a reporter gene and the promoters of genes whose products participate in visual processing. The promoters are those that regulate transcription of genes coding peptides, rate-limiting enzymes of transmitter metabolism, receptors and ion channels. The morphological parameters of the labeled cell populations are studied as well as their synaptic connections. Attempts are presently made to identify in vitro, after dissociation of the retina, the living cells that carry the reporter gene. In this way, it will be possible to study the voltage-and ligand-gated currents of the retinal neurons that carry the transgene by means of the whole-cell patch clamp technique and integrate the data thus obtained into the neural networks that were described anatomically.

 

References:

  • Dacheux RF and Raviola E (1986) The rod path-way in the rabbit retina: A depolarizing bipolar and amacrine cell. J. Neurosci. 6:331-345.
  • Strettoi E, Raviola E and Dacheux RF (1992) Synaptic connections of the narrow-field, bistratified rod amacrine cell (AII) in the rabbit retina. J. Comp. Neurol. 325:152-168.
  • Gustincich S, Feigenspan A, Wu D-K, Koopman LJ and Raviola E (1997) Control of dopamine release in the retina: A transgenic approach to neural networks. Neuron 18:723-736