News tagged with photoreceptor cells

Related topics: cells , retina

Plant growth without light control: Synthetic photoreceptor stimulates germination and development

Plants are dependent on the sun. Sunlight does not only supply them with energy, but also controls their development steps. So-called photoreceptors activate the processes of germination, leaf development, ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created May 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

Scientists solve mystery of the eye

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have a good overall understanding of human vision: when light enters our eyes, it is focused by the lens and strikes the retina in the back of the eye. The light causes some of ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 17, 2011 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (64) | comments 14 | with audio podcast feature

Protein plays role in helping plants see light

Plants do not have eyes or legs, yet they are able to "see" and move toward and away from light. This ability, called phototropism, is controlled by a series of molecular-level signals between proteins inside and between ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Oct 12, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Finding is a feather in the cap for researchers studying birds' big, powerful eyes

Say what you will about bird brains, but our feathered friends sure have us -- and all the other animals on the planet -- beat in the vision department, and that has a bit to do with how their brains develop.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Jun 23, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Nanosized diamonds enable progress in retinal prostheses

Research groups in several countries are making progress in retinal prosthesis development. If they achieve their aims, patients who have gone blind, due to loss of their photoreceptors, could recover a better ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Jun 17, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0

First patients enroll in US stem cell trials on blindness

The first clinical trials that examine the use of stem cells to treat two forms of blindness are ready to begin now that patients have been enrolled, a US company announced on Thursday.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jun 16, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Researchers report progress using iPS cells to reverse blindness

Researchers have used cutting-edge stem cell technology to correct a genetic defect present in a rare blinding disorder, another step on a promising path that may one day lead to therapies to reverse blindness ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jun 15, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Light-sensing receptor plays role in temperature sensation: study

A light-sensing receptor that's packed inside the eye's photoreceptor cells has an altogether surprising role in cells elsewhere in the body, Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered. Using fruit flies, they showed that this ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Mar 10, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Modeling retinitis pigmentosa with iPS cells

Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a cluster of genetically determined eye disorders that cause visual defects such as night blindness and narrowing of the field of vision, due to progressive loss of rod photoreceptors. ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 09, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Team finds mutation involved in macular degeneration

Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Cell-Matrix Research in Manchester have revealed more about how a particular genetic change significantly raises the risk of developing age-related macular degeneration.

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Nov 26, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Evolutionary bestseller in image processing

The eye is not just a lens that takes pictures and converts them into electrical signals. As with all vertebrates, nerve cells in the human eye separate an image into different image channels once it has been ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Nov 10, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Stem cell technique offers new potential to treat blindness

(PhysOrg.com) -- University College London scientists are pioneering a stem cell treatment to replace diseased parts of the retina, which could lead to a future treatment for retinal diseases that affect around 3,000 children ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Sep 22, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Gene scan helps identify cause of inherited blindness

(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have scanned the entire genome of mice for genes that help build photoreceptors, the light-sensing cells of the eye.

Medicine & Health / Genetics

created Sep 07, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Valproic acid shown to halt vision loss in patients with retinitis pigmentosa

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) believe they may have found a new treatment for retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a severe neurodegenerative disease of the retina that ultimately results in blindness. ...

Medicine & Health / Medical research

created Jul 21, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Nna proteins play role in catastrophic neuron death in mice, flies -- and perhaps people

A team of researchers, led by scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have identified a key player in the dramatic loss of neurons in mice and fly models, a discovery that could help illuminate the role of ...

Medicine & Health / Neuroscience

created Jun 24, 2010 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast