Frank Werblin

Frank Werblin is Professor of the Graduate School, Division of Neurobiology at the University of California, Berkeley.[1]

Education

Werblin earned his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University studying with Professor John Dowling. He was a Guggenheim Fellow,[2] and is noted for discovering a number of cellular correlates underlying visual information processing in the retina.

Career

In 1969, Werblin and Dowling published their seminal studies of the electrophysiological response properties of all the major neuron types in the vertebrate retina.[3] The micropipette used to record from each cell contained a dye so that each physiologically identified cell could also be morphologically characterized within the layers of the retina. In 1978, he published the first isolated retinal slice preparation for a quicker and easier means to access all of the neurons in the various layers of the retina, while leaving the cells largely intact with their supporting matrix and synaptic connections and electrical junctions.[4] However, because the retinal slice was isolated from the supportive retinal pigment epithelium (PE) that enables the light responses of photoreceptors, light evoked responses were not reported until the retinal slices were constructed with PE still attached.[5] In this manner, whole cell patch recording of amacrine neurons in the salamander retina allowed light evoked excitatory post-synaptic currents (EPSCs) to be measured for the first time, as well as their light elicited spiking potentials, and voltage-gated currents. The new slice technique allowed, for the first time, a neuron to be characterized by its natural stimulus (light), and then to be fully characterized by its morphological, histological, electrophysiological (EPSCs, voltage gated currents, and graded and spike potentials), and chemical identity.[6] The new light-responsive slice methodology also allowed interplexiform cells to be identified and characterized for the first time,[7] as well as sustained and transient amacrine neurons.[8] Precise localization of synaptic inputs to the cell, and localization of functional receptors in the cell was achieved.[9] The slice technique would become a standard for retinal research and be developed for other animals with much smaller neurons, including the Zebrafish[10] and rat.[11] Werblin would then use these data to construct elegant models of visual information processing in the different layers of the retina.[12]

In 2017, Werblin received the Pepose Award in Vision Science from Brandeis University.[13]

Werblin is also a co-inventor of Visionize, a device/software to help low-vision patients.[14]

gollark: Fascinating.
gollark: I prepared countercountermeasures and large quantities of apioforms for power.
gollark: Clearly my submission next time should include a bit of code to exfiltrate data about the environment for testing.
gollark: I WILL overwrite the thing.
gollark: Do so, probably maybe.

References
  1. "Werblin Lab".
  2. "John Simon Guggenheim Foundation - Frank Simon Werblin".
  3. Werblin, Frank (1969). "Organization of the retina of the mudpuppy, Necturus maculosus. II. Intracellular recording". Journal of Neurophysiology. 32 (3): 339–355.
  4. Werblin, Frank (1978). "Transmission along and between rods in the tiger salamander retina". Journal of Physiology. 280: 449–470. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.1978.sp012394. PMC 1282669. PMID 211229.
  5. Maguire, Greg (1989). "Amacrine cell interactions underlying the response to change in the tiger salamander retina". Journal of Neuroscience. 9 (2): 726–735. PMID 2918384.
  6. Maguire, Greg (1989). "Gamma-aminobutyrate type B receptor modulation of L-type calcium channel current at bipolar cell terminals in the retina of the tiger salamander". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 86 (24): 10144–10147. doi:10.1073/pnas.86.24.10144. PMC 298663. PMID 2557620.
  7. Maguire, Greg (1990). "Synaptic and voltage-gated currents in interplexiform cells of the tiger salamander retina". Journal of General Physiology. 95 (4): 755–770. doi:10.1085/jgp.95.4.755. PMC 2216332. PMID 2159975.
  8. Maguire, Greg (1999). "Rapid desensitization converts prolonged glutamate release into a transient EPSC at ribbon synapses between retinal bipolar and amacrine cells". European Journal of Physiology. 11: 353–362. doi:10.1046/j.1460-9568.1999.00439.x. PMID 9987038.
  9. Maguire, Greg (1999). "Spatial heterogeneity and function of voltage- and ligand-gated ion channels in retinal amacrine neurons". Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 266: 987–992. doi:10.1098/rspb.1999.0734. PMC 1689933. PMID 10380682.
  10. Connaughton, Vicki (1988). "Differential expression of voltage-gated K+ and Ca2+ currents in bipolar cells in the zebrafish retinal slice". European Journal of Neuroscience. 10: 1350–1362. doi:10.1046/j.1460-9568.1998.00152.x. PMID 9749789.
  11. Sassoè-Pognetto, M (1996). "Synaptic organization of an organotypic slice culture of the mammalian retina". Visual Neuroscience. 13: 759–771. doi:10.1017/s0952523800008634. PMID 8870231.
  12. Werblin, Frank (2011). "The retinal hypercircuit: A repeating synaptic interactive motif underlying visual function". Journal of Physiology. 589: 3691–3702. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2011.210617. PMC 3171878. PMID 21669978.
  13. "Leading retina researcher to receive eighth annual Pepose Award in Vision Sciences | All News | News and Events | Brandeis Alumni & Friends | Brandeis University". alumni.brandeis.edu. Retrieved 2020-02-08.
  14. Lien, Tracy (March 19, 2016). "Cutting Edge Vision uses virtual reality headsets to help people with low vision". LA Times.
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