Newswise — SALT LAKE CITY—Scientists from the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah have achieved another first in the field of connectomics, which studies the synaptic connections between neurons.
Moran’s Marclab for Connectomics was the first to complete a map of the circuitry of the retina, or connectome, in 2011. Now, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded lab has produced the first pathoconnectome, showing how eye disease alters retinal circuitry.
The implications of the published research, A pathoconnectome of early neurodegeneration: Network changes in retinal degeneration, extend far beyond eye diseases. The eye holds lessons applicable to a host of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“The components of neurodegeneration we see in the eye seem to mimic those we see in the…
