Dr. Andrew Ishida

Degrees

1981    PhD    (Biology)    University of California, Los Angeles
 

Research Interests

Inches separate our eyes from the nearest subcortical brain regions they communicate with. Two different kinds of signals could traverse this distance and thus be used to report the changes in incident light that our eyes detect. The simplest of these are identical from moment to moment, and in all of the cells that conduct the afferent signals of the eye. A different type of signal could vary – for example, between cell types, or as ambient light intensity changes, or if our eyes generate signals frequently. Our experiments asked whether these signals are simple during daytime vision and, if not, then “how, when, and why” they become more complicated. We performed these studies on individual retinal ganglion cells whose axons form the optic nerve; on amacrine and interplexiform cells in the eye that regulate signal generation by retinal ganglion cells; and by analyzing signals recorded in the optic nerve, optic chiasm, and optic tract. Our early studies focused on how retinal ganglion cells generate signals. We then studied whether and how dopamine (released during daytime by some amacrine and interplexiform cells) alters retinal ganglion cell signals. Our later studies examined how these signals travel along and beyond the optic nerve. These projects used patch-clamp, fast voltage-clamp, multielectrode arrays, suction electrodes, sharp metal electrodes, immunohistochemistry, immunoprecipitation, calcium imaging, primary cell culture, organotypic culture, and both ex vivo and in vivo spike recording.

Awards

ASUCD Excellence in Education Award (College of Biological Sciences)

Outstanding Service Award (Neuroscience Graduate Group)

CBS Grad Group Affiliations

Neuroscience

Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology

Specialties / Focus

Neurophysiology

Teaching Interests

Neuroscience, Physiology, Visual System

Courses

NPB 101 Systemic Physiology

NPB 261A Topics in Vision