Faculty > Kerschensteiner

Daniel Kerschensteiner, M.D.

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Assistant Professor, Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences
Assistant Professor, Anatomy & Neurobiology
Email: KerschensteinerD@vision.wustl.edu

Phone: (314) 747-5630

M.D. Georg-August University Göttingen, Germany (2003)
Residency in Neurology Georg-August University Göttingen, Germany (2002-2004)
Fellow, Neuroscience, University College London, UK (2004-2005)

Fellow, Biological Structure, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (2005-2009)

Research Area:

Retina

 

Research Interests:

We would like to understand the principles that guide the assembly of neural circuits and to decipher the way they process information.  Our efforts concentrate on the mammalian retina.  We use transgenic and ballistic gene delivery to fluorescently label specific neurons and connections in this circuit, and follow their development using confocal and two-photon imaging. In addition, we use light - the natural input to this circuit - to elicit signals with high precision and track the processing of visual information among successive neurons of the circuitry using patch-clamp and multi-electrode array recordings.  By combining these approaches, we hope to identify features of the circuit architecture that perform particular computations and characterize how they arise during development.  We will then probe underlying mechanisms of circuit assembly and function through genetically targeted manipulations of specific cells in the retina.

 

Selected Publications:

  1. Kerschensteiner D, Morgan JL, Parker EP, Lewis RM and Wong ROL (2009).  Neurotransmission selectively regulates synapse formation in parallel circuits in vivo. Nature 460 (7258):1016-20
  2. Kerschensteiner D and Wong ROL (2008).  A precisely-timed asynchronous pattern of ON and OFF retinal ganglion cell activity during propagation of retinal waves. Neuron 58(6):851-8
  3. Kerschensteiner D, Liu H, Cheng CW, Demas J, Cheng SH, Hui CC, Chow RL and Wong ROL (2008).  Genetic control of circuit function: Vsx1 and Irx5 transcription factors regulate contrast adaptation in the mouse retina. J Neurosci 28(10):2342-52
  4. Kerschensteiner D, Soto F and Stocker M (2005). Fluorescence measurements reveal stoichiometry of K+ channels formed by modulatory and delayed rectifier alpha-subunits. PNAS 102(17):6160-5


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