Vision Science Faculty
Area of Research
Clinical Translational Research Biomedical OpticsInterests
Visual optics, ocular aberrations, cataract, refractive surgery, early disease detection.
Raymond A. Applegate,O.D., Ph.D., FAAO
Active Faculty RetireeDr. Applegate is Professor Emeritus in Vision Science. Since retiring from full-time service in early 2022, Dr. Applegate is continuing his research and teaching as part-time faculty.
Dr. Applegate obtained his OD (1975) and MS (1976) from Indiana University. He practiced optometry briefly in Galesburg, IL before continuing his graduate education at UC, Berkeley where he received his PhD (1983) under Anthony (Tony) Adams. He joined the University of Texas Health Science Center faculty in 1988 from the School of Optometry University of Missouri – St. Louis where he served as an assistant professor of optometry. He rose through the faculty ranks quickly to become a tenured professor of ophthalmology in 1993. In 2002, Dr. Applegate accepted the College of Optometry, at the University of Houston’s offer to become the first Endowed Borish Chair in Optometry (2002=2021). He has served as a feature editor of Journal of the Optical Society of America –A, Applied Optics, and on the editorial boards of Optometry and Vision Science, the Journal of Refractive Surgery, the Journal of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, and currently serves on the editorial board of Clinical and Experimental Optometry. He served the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology as chair of the Annual Meeting Program Committee for the Vision Science Section, as well as the Board of Trustees representing the Visual Science Section and Vice-president of ARVO. He is a cofounder of the International Congress on Wavefront Sensing and Aberration-Free Refraction Correction, is widely published in leading journals, consultant, and international lecturer whose NIH funded research interests center on the optics of the eye, visual image quality, as well as, early ocular disease detection, treatment, and prevention.
Area of Research
Clinical Translational ResearchInterests
Clinical research - biostatistics
Julia Benoit,Ph.D.
Research Assistant ProfessorDr. Benoit is a Research Associate Professor. She joined the faculty at the University’s College of Optometry in 2014 and also holds a faculty position at the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics at the University of Houston. She earned her PhD in Biostatistics with a concentration in Epidemiology from the University of Texas Health Science Center-School of Public Health in Houston. There, she worked within the coordinating center for clinical trials and her graduate work was in the development of statistical methodology on hidden longitudinal processes to study indirectly observable disease processes. Dr. Benoit has expertise in study design and advanced analytics, with >10 years of experience collaborating on multidisciplinary research projects with clinical and research faculty alike.
Area of Research
Ocular BiologyInterests
corneal wound healing, corneal inflammation
Alan R. Burns,Ph.D.
McDaid-Vision Source ProfessorDr. Burns received his PhD in Pathology from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He completed his post-doctoral training at Baylor College of Medicine and then joined their faculty where he rose from Assistant to Associate Professor. During this time, he served as the Director of the Cardiovascular Sciences Graduate Program. His research focused on Leukocyte Recruitment and Inflammation and toward the end of his term with BCM, he began to study corneal inflammation and wound healing. This interest in the eye lead to his leaving BCM in 2008 to join the faculty at the University of Houston, College of Optometry (UHCO) as a tenured Associate Professor. In 2012, he became a Full Professor and he now studies the impact of obesity and the metabolic syndrome on corneal health. His research has been steadily funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 26 Years and much of that time was also spent as a reviewer for the NIH, the Canadian Institutes of Health and the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program. He has more than 130 publications, 8 book chapters, and he has mentored 24 PhD, MSc and post-doctoral fellows. With over 40 years of experience in light and electron microscopic imaging, he also serves as the Director of the Biological Imaging Core at UHCO. He is a McDaid Vision Source Endowed Professor (2016) and he has received several Faculty Teaching awards during his tenure at the College of Optometry.
Area of Research
Visual NeuroscienceInterests
spatial vision, color vision, reading, and statistical and psychophysical methods
Daniel R. Coates,Ph.D.
Assistant ProfessorDr. Coates received his PhD in Vision Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015, where he studied letter recognition, peripheral visual perception, and crowding, using psychophysics and computational modeling. After postdoctoral appointments in Belgium and Switzerland studying the relationships between crowding, attention, and appearance, he joined the faculty of UHCO in 2017.
His research and teaching interests include spatial vision, color vision, reading, and statistical and psychophysical methods. He is passionate about the use of open source tools for experimentation, analysis, and learning.
Area of Research
Ocular BiologyInterests
role of glycosaminoglycans in ocular surface development and pathology
Vivien J. Coulson-Thomas,Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorMy research involves primarily the study of glycosaminoglycans and proteoglycans in the fields of cornea, cancer, wound healing, stem cells, inflammation, development, spinal cord injury and nerve regeneration. This unique interdisciplinary approach aims to decipher the role of glycosaminoglycans in development and pathology. One of our ongoing projects is to unveil the role of hyaluronan (HA) in ocular surface development and pathology using knockout approaches. We have previously shown that umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells synthesize a rich extracellular HA modified glycocalyx that regulates inflammatory cells enabling these cells to survive xenograft rejection. We are currently developing umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells and their hyaluronan rich glycocalyx for treating inflammatory disorders.
Area of Research
Visual NeuroscienceInterests
neural mechanisms that are affected in the different forms of strabismus; information processing in neural oculomotor circuits
Vallabh Das,Ph.D.
ProfessorDepartment Chair, Vision Science
I received my undergraduate degree from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, India in 1992 majoring in Electronics Engineering. I then moved to the United States for graduate studies and completed a M.S and Ph.D. degree in 1998 in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. My work, carried out under the mentorship of Dr. John Leigh, primarily examined the interactions between visual-oculomotor and vestibular systems. I did post-doctoral work at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University with Dr. Michael Mustari from 1999 to 2002. During this time I learnt the technique of single cell extracellular recording in the awake-behaving monkey and also became interested in examining visual-oculomotor mechanisms in the strabismic primate. I was appointed to the faculty at Emory University in 2002 and received an independent investigator award from the National Institutes of Health in 2004 to study neural circuits mediating binocular coordination of eye movements in the strabismic monkey. I have since maintained continued NIH funding. I joined the faculty of the College of Optometry, University of Houston in 2009. The goal of research in my laboratory is to continue to uncover the disruption of neural processing in various brain areas in the strabismic monkeys. A better understanding of neural mechanisms that are affected in the different forms of strabismus will help develop rationally based therapy.
Area of Research
Biomedical Optics Ocular Biology Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Neural circuit and synaptic remodeling in retinal development and degeneration.
Luca Della Santina,Ph.D., Pharm.D.
Assistant ProfessorDr. Della Santina received his M.S in medicinal chemistry, Pharm.D. in pharmacy and Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Pisa. He moved to the United States as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington, Seattle under the supervision of Dr. Rachel Wong. Following his postdoctoral training, he was a research faculty at the University of Pisa, Italy and at the University of California, San Francisco before joining the faculty at the College of Optometry, University of Houston in 2021. His research focuses on investigating the functional, circuit and synaptic rearrangements of the retina following to neurodegenerative diseases, to identify novel cellular targets for early detection and treatment. His research laboratory develops novel computational tools for large-scale recording of neurons and identification of neural circuits, as well as computer vision approaches based on deep learning for the automatic detection of ocular diseases in clinical and smartphone photographs.
Area of Research
Ocular BiologyInterests
ocular surface, GAGs, drug development for ocular disease, focus on ocular surface?
Tarsis G. Ferreira,B.S., MSc, Ph.D.
Assistant ProfessorDr. Tarsis Gesteira Ferreira earned his B.S. in Biomedicine and MSc and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Federal University of Sao Paulo. He went on to complete post-doctoral training at the following locations:
Dr. Ferreira then co-founded the pharmaceutical company Optimvia, which focuses on the in-silico design of enzymes for the in-vitro synthesis of heparin. His research focuses on the role of complex sugars and proteins in different eye pathologies, understanding their mechanism of action in order to explore their drugability. His current research goals are to develop small molecule drugs targeting the inhibition of corneal angiogenesis following injury, treating bacterial and viral keratitis, and wet macular degeneration. We are pleased to have Dr. Ferreira join the department of Vision Sciences as an Assistant Professor (tenure-track).
Area of Research
Ocular Biology Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Retinal physiology, non invasive assessment of retina and anterior visual path in normal and disease
Laura J. Frishman,Ph.D., FAAO, FARVO
ProfessorAssociate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research
Dr. Frishman has been on the faculty of the College of Optometry since 1990 and currently serves as the Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research. She received her undergraduate degree from Vassar College and her MS and PhD in physiological psychology/neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh. She did postdoctoral training in visual neuroscience at Northwestern University and the University of California San Francisco where she also was a research faculty member. Dr. Frishman has taught in both the professional and graduate programs in the College of Optometry. Her research has focused on refining noninvasive electrophysiological approaches for evaluating retinal and anterior visual pathway function in normal subjects and subjects with inherited or acquired diseases that affect visual function.
Dr. Frishman currently serves as an Associate Editor for Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, she is on the editorial board of Translational Vision Science and Technology and she is an academic editor for PloS One. Previously she served as Editor-in-chief of the Journals, Visual Neurocience, and Documenta Ophthalmological. Dr. Frishman has served on federal grant review panels, the NIH/NEI National Advisory Eye Council, and she is a fellow of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (FARVO), American Academy of Optometry (FAAO) and a board member of the International Society for the Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV).?
Area of Research
Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Gap junctions in the retina, rod-cone coupling
Nange Jin,M.D., Ph.D.
Research Assistant ProfessorDr. Nange Jin received his M.D. in Clinical Medicine from Yanbian University College of Medicine in China. He earned his Ph.D. in Medical Science with a major in physiology & biophysics at the Seoul National University in South Korea. Afterwards, he received post-doctoral training in the Department of Physiology & Cell Biology at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno. His research now includes the effects of rod-cone coupling plasticity on downstream retinal circuits that control both the image-forming and the non-image-forming visual pathways. Dr. Jin conducted some of this research within Christophe Ribelayga’s laboratory at the University of Texas Health Science Center. Dr. Jin will be joining the department of Vision Sciences as a Research Assistant Professor.
Area of Research
Clinical Translational Research Biomedical OpticsInterests
Optical aberration of the eye, custom and pseudo-custom correction of optical aberration, visual performance, metrics predictive of visual performance.
Jason Marsack,Ph.D., FAAO
Associate ProfessorI am a scientist/ engineer with a strong interest in applied and translational research. My laboratory focuses on developing and translating optical correction strategies for eyes with poor visual quality (keratoconus, pellucid marginal degeneration, Down syndrome) to the clinical environment and investigating the relationship between optical quality and visual performance. I teach geometric optics to students in the optometry professional program, advanced optical topics to students in the physiological optics program at The University of Houston College of Optometry and mentor students seeking the M.S. and/or Ph.D. degrees
Cherlyn J. Ng,Ph.D.
Sr Research ScientistCherlyn Ng was born and raised in Singapore, where she went on to earn her BSc in neuroscience and PhD in x-ray crystallography from the National University of Singapore. Drawing upon her earlier experiences with audio/visual production, she received postdoctoral training in computational modeling, psychophysics and developed a deep interest in visual perception. Her current interests focuses on how the brain processes and represents sensory information, with particular emphasis on binocular vision. However, traditional psychophysics does not distinguish between percepts that arise from neural mechanisms and visual limitations that are caused by the imperfect optics of the eyes. She addresses this conundrum by coupling psychophysics with adaptive optics technology. This method minimizes optical limitations by correcting for the optical aberrations in the eyes so that percepts brought about by the neural mechanisms can be measured in isolation. These measurements serve the eventual purpose of building a unified model that explains how the brain chooses between selecting and balancing information from the two eyes.
Area of Research
Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Roles of recurrent connections between cortical areas in visual computation and perception.
Lauri Nurminen,Ph.D.
Assistant ProfessorI received a Master’s Degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Helsinki, and Ph.D. in Neuroscience advised by Dr. Simo Vanni jointly from the University of Helsinki and the Low Temperature Laboratory of Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. I completed postdoctoral training at the Moran Eye Center of the University of Utah under the guidance of Dr. Alessandra Angelucci. My postdoctoral work with Dr. Angelucci elucidated the neural circuit basis of receptive fields of primary visual cortex neurons in non-human primates. My NIH K99 training was completed under the guidance of Dr. Angelucci and Dr. John Reynolds at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where I worked with awake, behaving marmoset monkeys. My laboratory utilizes electrophysiology, optogenetics, and behavioral techniques in awake and behaving marmosets to elucidate the roles of recurrent connections between cortical areas in visual computation and perception.
Area of Research
Ocular Biology Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Electrical synapses in retinal neurons, gap junctions
John O'Brien,Ph.D.
ProfessorDr. John O’Brien joined UHCO as a Professor in Vision Science in 2021. Dr. O’Brien earned his B.A. in Biochemistry at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. O’Brien entered the field of vision research in a post-doc with mentors Harris Ripps and Muayyad Al-Ubaidi at the University of Illinois at Chicago. There he cloned connexins that form electrical synapses in retinal neurons, setting the stage for a large fraction of the research he has performed since then. In 1998, Dr. O’Brien joined the Ophthalmology faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, in which his lab conducted research on retinal electrical synapses. Dr. O’Brien has published extensively on this topic and has been funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) since 2000. Dr. O’Brien has recently begun to study regeneration of rod photoreceptors in a transgenic zebrafish model of Retinitis Pigmentosa developed in his lab. His group has applied single-cell transcriptomics to map out transcriptional pathways involved in the proliferation and differentiation of progenitor cells to form new rods and to study the role of microglia in retinal regeneration. His lab is applying a variety of molecular and genetic techniques to investigate these pathways.
Area of Research
Clinical Translational Research Biomedical Optics Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Myopia, circadian rythms and eye growth nvironmental and behavioral influences on circadian rhythm and eye growth.
Lisa Ostrin,O.D., Ph.D., FAAO
Associate ProfessorDr. Ostrin is an Associate Professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. She then completed the combined OD/PhD program at the University of Houston College of Optometry. Following graduate work focused in accommodative physiology, she went to John Hopkins University for post-doctoral research in low vision and retinal prosthetics. From there, she worked as a Clinician Researcher at the University of California Berkeley School of Optometry, with a focus on myopia and associations with glaucoma. She returned to the University of Houston as faculty to continue her work in myopia and circadian rhythms. In addition to research, Dr. Ostrin teaches gross and ocular anatomy, and has authored a book, Anatomy of the Human Eye: a Coloring Atlas. Dr. Ostrin is a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, Gold Fellow of ARVO, and a recipient of the American Optometric Foundation Ezell Fellowship.
Area of Research
Clinical Translational Research Biomedical Optics Ocular Biology Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Optical coherence tomography, structure-function relationships in glaucoma, algorithm development for early detection of optic nerve pathology
Nimesh Patel,O.D., Ph.D., FAAO
Associate ProfessorDr. Patel graduated from the Southern College of Optometry, Memphis Tennessee in 2002, after which he completed a residency in Family Practice at Northeastern State University Oklahoma College of Optometry. He completed his graduate work at the University of Houston, earning a PhD in 2012, and has been on the faculty since. His current research is on improving structural measures of the optic nerve head, retinal nerve fiber layer and macula regions using optical coherence tomography, and investigating the relationship between these structural measures and visual function. He also teaches students in the classroom, laboratory and clinical settings.
Area of Research
Clinical Translational Research Biomedical OpticsInterests
imaging retinal and optic nerve head structures and vasculature in normal and glaucomatous eyes, as well as in eyes with color vision deficiencies and retinal disease.
Jason Porter,Ph.D., FAAO, FARVO
Associate ProfessorDr. Jason Porter is an Associate Professor in Physiological Optics and Vision Science and in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Houston. He earned his BS, MS, and PhD in Optics from the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics. As a graduate student and postdoctoral fellow with David Williams, he worked in the areas of ocular aberration measurement, customized correction, and high-resolution retinal imaging using adaptive optics. During this time, he was lead editor for the book entitled, “Adaptive Optics for Vision Science,” a collaborative work that describes the principles and practices of adaptive optics in vision science.
At the College of Optometry, Dr. Porter’s laboratory investigates mechanisms responsible for the development and progression of neuro-ophthalmic and retinal-related conditions (including glaucoma, traumatic brain injury / concussion, and inherited retinal degenerations). Recent work has also examined how foveal structure changes during normal development and in myopia. Dr. Porter’s laboratory has built an adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscope to noninvasively image and monitor normal and diseased retinal structure on a cellular level in the same eyes over time. These experiments are often complimented with the use of clinical imaging techniques and visual function examinations to investigate structure-function relationships. The laboratory also conducts engineering research, often to facilitate its scientific goals, in areas such as optimizing methods of adaptive optics control and developing neural networks to automatically segment perfused retinal vasculature.
Area of Research
Ocular BiologyInterests
ocular homeostasis and to characterize the host response to environmental stress and disease progression using mass spectrometry-based omics tools.
Guoting Qin,Ph.D.
Research Assistant ProfessorGuoting Qin is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Vision Sciences of the University of Houston, College of Optometry. She received a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Houston.
Her research focus is to understand ocular homeostasis and to characterize the host response to environmental stress and disease progression using mass spectrometry-based omics tools. These tools, including crosslinking mass spectrometry, proteomics, lipidomics, metabolomics, and glycomics, are used to map the interactome of the ocular surface at a molecular level.
Area of Research
Clinical Translational Research Ocular BiologyInterests
ocular surface inflammation/infection, the impact of contact lenses (e.g. scleral gas permeable lenses) on normal and diseased eyes
Rachel Redfern,O.D., Ph.D., FAAO
Associate ProfessorRachel Redfern received her bachelor's degree in biology from Texas A&M University and then her OD/PhD from the University of Houston, College of Optometry. In 2006, Dr. Redfern received the Institutional Ruth Kirschstein National Research Post-doctorate Award and the ARVO/Alcon Early Career Clinician-Scientist Research Award. Dr. Redfern is a member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the American Academy of Optometry and the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society. She is also a past William C. Ezell Fellow.
Her laboratory is interested in ocular surface inflammation/infection, the impact of contact lenses (e.g. scleral gas permeable lenses) on normal and diseased eyes and the functional and anatomical changes that occurs in the meibomian glands with age and disease. They perform human subject, animal and in vitro studies. Dr. Redfern’s laboratory is NIH funded to examine the impact of toll-like receptors on the production of damaging cytokines and matrix metalloproteases and beneficial antimicrobial peptides on the ocular surface.
Area of Research
Ocular Biology Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Circadian clocks and retinal development, plasticity in network of coupled photoreceptors.
Christophe Ribelayga,M.S., Ph.D.
ProfessorFoundation for Education & Research in Vision (FERV) Professor
Dr. Ribelayga received his M.S. (1995) and Ph.D. (2000), both in Neuroscience, from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France. He then did post-doctoral work at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) (1999-2005). During this time, he used techniques of single cell recording in the retina to examine how circadian clocks within the retina control the light responses of retinal cells. He joined The Ohio State University (OSU) School of Medicine in Columbus, OH as a Research Assistant Professor (2005-2009) and subsequently moved to The University of Texas at Houston (UTHealth) McGovern Medical School as an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology. Dr. Ribelayga was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2016 and awarded the Bernice Weingarten Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology in 2019. Dr. Ribelayga joined the University of Houston College of Optometry (UHCO) in 2021, where he is Professor of Physiological Optics and Vision Science. His work has long focused on two areas of research: 1) the role of circadian clocks in the development, maintenance, and function of retinal cells, and 2) the functional architecture of the network of coupled photoreceptors, its plasticity, and the impact of this plasticity on retinal circuit processing and visual perception. Although Dr. Ribelayga’s research accomplishments are primarily in basic science, his work may have important clinical relevance and has been continuously supported by NIH.
Area of Research
Ocular Biology Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Retina regeneration, Microglia in regeneration, vision restoration, cornea wound healing
Abirami Santhanam,Ph.D.
Research Assistant ProfessorDr. Abirami Santhanam received her doctorate in Biochemistry at the National Taiwan University, Taiwan. She got the opportunity to work with Dr. Steven Wilson from Cleveland Clinic on corneal wound healing and regeneration during her postdoctoral career and has contributed to the understanding of the role of growth factors and receptors in corneal development that are important to treat the pathophysiological conditions that affect the cornea after surgery, infection or trauma. She established the Laser capture-based microdissection technique on the cornea to understand the role of stromal proteins. Then she got the opportunity to work with Dr. John O’Brien on retina regeneration. The regenerative power of Zebrafish combined with single-cell transcriptome analysis provided an excellent system to understand the exciting molecular mechanisms of regeneration in the retina. She has established a Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) model in the zebrafish to understand the regeneration of rod cells that are degenerated in human RP conditions. Currently, her lab is in the process of identifying the key factors that turn on and regulate this regeneration that can be translated into the mammalian system to turn on regeneration successfully. Her long-time research interest is to contribute more towards the understanding of the complex controls and molecular mechanisms in signal transduction pathways involved in vision restoration.
Area of Research
Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Vergence eye movements and binocular coordination, stereoscopic depth perception, modeling of binocular image matching processes.
Scott B. Stevenson,Ph.D.
Associate ProfessorScott Stevenson received his PhD in Experimental Psychology from Brown University in 1987 for studies of visual suppression during eye blinks. He was an NRSA post-doc at UC Berkeley School of Optometry for three years, and then joined the research faculty there. Dr. Stevenson joined the faculty at UH in 1995.
Dr. Stevenson’s research concentrates on the visual control of eye movements, with emphasis on visually driven eye movement reflexes, such as for the control of eye alignment. Dr Stevenson is also active in the development of eye trackers based on high magnification retinal imaging in a broad collaboration involving researchers at a number of other institutions.
Dr. Stevenson teaches in courses on Vision Science, Perception, Optometry, Eye Movements, and Matlab for Vision Science.
Area of Research
Clinical Translational Research Biomedical Optics Visual NeuroscienceInterests
Optical quality of the eye and to improve visual performance by correcting the optical defects in the eye
Geunyoung Yoon,Ph.D
ProfessorIrvin M. Borish Professor
Dr. Geunyoung Yoon is currently appointed as the Irvin M. Borish Chair Professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry. He previously served as a faculty at the University of Rochester. His laboratory’s overarching research goal is to enhance our understanding of optical and neural mechanisms underlying vision and eye problems by conducting human-based translational research. To achieve this goal, his laboratory has been developing various state-of-the-art technology including advanced ocular aberrometers, wavefront-guided vision correction methods, binocular adaptive optics visual simulator, and in-vivo cornea/anterior segment imaging modalities. These capabilities have been used for studying mechanistic interactions between the optics of the eye and the neural system, vision improvement for patients with corneal pathologies, diagnosis and treatment of corneal diseases, presbyopia correction, and myopia development/control. Dr. Yoon’s laboratory is funded by NIH, other non-profit funding agencies, and the industry. He is a recipient of the Dolly Green Special Scholars Award, Research to Prevent Blindness, and David E. Bryant Trust Research Award. He is a panel member for the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health and serves as a member of the Editorial Boards of Frontiers in Ophthalmology, Annals of Optometry and Contact Lenses, and Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society.
Area of Research
Visual NeuroscienceZhijing Zhang,Ph.D.
Research Assistant ProfessorDr. Zhijing Zhang received his B.S. in Clinical Medicine from Tianjin Medical University, China, and a master’s degree in neuroscience from Peking Union Medical College. Dr. Zhang also holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He had post-doctoral training at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center where he focused on epigenetics and the development of the nervous system. Dr. Zhang worked as a research associate in Dr. Christophe Ribelayga’s lab at the University of Texas Health Science Center to study retinal functions.
Dr. Zhang joined the Department of Vision Sciences as a Research Assistant Professor. Dr. Zhang’s research interests focus on how circadian mechanisms and gap junctions affect retinal functions.