About
Jonathan Demb is a Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Science at Yale School of Medicine, with secondary appointments in Cellular & Molecular Physiology and Neuroscience. He holds a PhD from Stanford University (1997) and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on retinal synaptic mechanisms, including visual processing in mammals, retinal ganglion cell function, and disease modeling. He has pioneered studies using optogenetics and glutamate sensors (e.g., iGluSnFR) to dissect retinal circuits. Key achievements include identifying nonlinearities in retinal synapses and elucidating roles of NMDA receptors in visual adaptation.
**Research Interests**: Retinal physiology, synaptic transmission, photoreceptor function, retinal disease mechanisms, and visual adaptation. Current projects explore optogenetic circuit mapping, NMDA receptor roles in vision, and experimental therapies for retinal diseases.
**Awards**: Recipient of the prestigious Cogan Award (2013, ARVO), Sloan Research Fellowship (2004), and Orthwein Yale Scholar Award (2011). He serves on editorial boards for *Journal of Neuroscience* and *PLoS Biology*.
**Collaborations**: Active partnerships with Damon Clark, Pouyan Rahmani, and Michael Crair on retinal circuitry and disease. His lab investigates mechanisms underlying orientation selectivity in amacrine cells and defensive visual responses.
**Recent Work**: Studies on optic nerve injury effects on retinal ganglion cells, molecular components of rod synapses, and dynamins' role in synaptic integrity. His research bridges basic neuroscience with translational applications in vision restoration.
**Lab & Teams**: The Demb Lab integrates electrophysiology, imaging, optogenetics, and computational modeling to study retinal circuitry. Collaborates with the Swartz Program in Theoretical Neurobiology and Wu Tsai Institute at Yale.
