Gollisch, Tim, Prof. Dr.
Professor for Sensory Processing in the Retina
- 2000: Diploma in Physics, University of Heidelberg
- 2004: PhD in Biophysics, Humboldt University Berlin
- 2004-2007: Postdoctoral Researcher, Harvard University, Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Biology
- 2007-2010: Max Planck Research Group Leader, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Munich-Martinsried
- since 2010: Professor for Sensory Processing in the Retina, School of Medicine, University of Göttingen
Major Research Interests
We are interested in how the neuronal network of the retina processes visual information. The focus of our work is on studying the function of the various neuron types in the retina and their synaptic connections. One goal is to better understand the “neural code” of the retina: how do the patterns of electrical activity in retinal neurons transmit information about the visual environment to downstream brain areas? Another goal is to better understand “neural computation” in the retina: how do the cells in the retinal network work, adapt, and interact to produce specific, useful responses? On the basis of these questions, we also study how dysfunction of the retinal circuitry, for example in retinal diseases, compromises sensory processing and how optogenetics can be used to artificially stimulate retinal neurons for vision restoration when photoreceptors are degenerating.
Our investigations are based on various techniques of recording the activity of neurons in the retina while stimulating the network with visual images or movies. To do so, we use isolated retinas of mice and salamanders and apply extracellular multi-electrode array recordings and intracellular recordings with glass pipettes. A central theme of our work is to combine the experiments with novel tools of data analysis and with mathematical modeling of the signal processing in the retina.
Homepage Department/Research Group
http://www.retina.uni-goettingen.de/
ORCID: 0000-0003-3998-533X