< content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> Bryan W. Jones | School of Medicine
Bryan W. Jones

Bryan W. Jones, PhD

Languages spoken: English

Academic Information

Departments Primary - Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences

Lab

I am a retinal neuroscientist. My scientific work involves understanding the topology of neural circuitry, and what the evolution of neural circuitry can teach us about information processing. Understanding how we perceive the world through neural circuits involved in vision is compelling enough. But understanding how those circuits are altered in disease like retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration drives the work. Elucidating how retinal tissues are connected at the ultrastructural level is fundamental to understanding how retinas and therefore neural circuits process information, but also discovering how that circuitry is altered in disease. Defects in neural wiring reveal potential therapeutic interventions targeted at restoring or preventing vision loss. This work is responsible for discovering the substantial clinical significance of negative neuronal remodeling in retinal degenerations and extends to both animal disease models of, and human retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. Specifically, exploring plasticity and remodeling in the retina along with glial reactions and neuronal death which are part and parcel of understanding pathological circuitry, particularly earlier in the disease process by creating complete network diagrams with rich data including classes, cell patternings, and complete connectivities. This work evolved into a new field called retinal connectomics, where I've been one of the pioneers. We created possibly the world's first retinal connectome, but certainly the first one with enough resolution to resolve synapses and gap junctions. My lab has also produced the very first pathoconnectome, in any tissue. This pathoconnectome or connectome of disease tissue was completed using retinal tissues via NIH/NEI funding, consonant with the goals of the NEI to understand normal retinal circuitry and how it is changed in disease.

I am also a some time photographer as a tacit personal reminder of why I work in retinal and visual sciences. My photographic work has been published or discussed in: NPRs Science Friday, National Geographic, The Smithsonian, Wired, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Science, the Washington Post, MSNBC, io9, Mother Nature Network, The Guardian UK, CNET, the Huffington Post, NewScientist, The Washington Times, Defense Technology International, Boing Boing, War is Boring, The Washington Independent, The NIH Director’s Blog, World Politics Review, Combat Aircraft, Mental Floss Magazine, USA Today, Warships International and others. I’ve also had gallery work presented in the Museum für Gestaltung in Zürich and Art Access in Salt Lake City and had materials used in documentary films.

Research Statement

Research Interests include retinal vision, synaptic transmission, neuronal circuitry, retinal cell biology, metabolism, connectomics

Education History

Postdoctoral Fellowship Moran Eye Center
 Postdoctoral Fellow
Huntsman Cancer Institute
 Postdoctoral Fellow
Doctoral Training University of Utah
 PhD
University of Utah
 BS

Selected Publications

Journal Article

  1. Rohrer B, Parsons N, Annamalai B, Nicholson C, Obert E, Jones BW, Dick AD (2021). Peptide-based immunotherapy against oxidized elastin ameliorates pathology in mouse model of smoke-induced ocular injury. Exp Eye Res, 212, 108755. (Read full article)
  2. Ning K, Sendayen BE, Kowal TJ, Wang B, Jones BW, Hu Y, Sun Y (2021). Primary Cilia in Amacrine Cells in Retinal Development. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 62(9), 15. (Read full article)
  3. Kosta P, Iseri E, Loizos K, Paknahad J, Pfeiffer RL, Sigulinsky CL, Anderson JR, Jones BW, Lazzi G (2021). Model-based comparison of current flow in rod bipolar cells of healthy and early-stage degenerated retina. Exp Eye Res, 207, 108554. (Read full article)
  4. Annamalai B, Parsons N, Nicholson C, Joseph K, Coughlin B, Yang X, Jones BW, Tomlinson S, Rohrer B (2021). Natural immunoglobulin M-based delivery of a complement alternative pathway inhibitor in mouse models of retinal degeneration. Exp Eye Res, 207, 108583. (Read full article)
  5. Annamalai B, Parsons N, Nicholson C, Obert E, Jones B, Rohrer B (2021). Subretinal Rather Than Intravitreal Adeno-Associated Virus-Mediated Delivery of a Complement Alternative Pathway Inhibitor Is Effective in a Mouse Model of RPE Damage. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 62(4), 11. (Read full article)
  6. Pfeiffer RL, Anderson JR, Dahal J, Garcia JC, Yang JH, Sigulinsky CL, Rapp K, Emrich DP, Watt CB, Johnstun HA, Houser AR, Marc RE, Jones BW (2020). A pathoconnectome of early neurodegeneration: Network changes in retinal degeneration. Exp Eye Res, 199, 108196. (Read full article)
  7. Sigulinsky CL, Anderson JR, Kerzner E, Rapp CN, Pfeiffer RL, Rodman TM, Emrich DP, Rapp KD, Nelson NT, Lauritzen JS, Meyer M, Marc RE, Jones BW (2020). Network Architecture of Gap Junctional Coupling among Parallel Processing Channels in the Mammalian Retina. J Neurosci, 40(23), 4483-4511. (Read full article)
  8. Ayton LN, Barnes N, Dagnelie G, Fujikado T, Goetz G, Hornig R, Jones BW, Muqit MMK, Rathbun DL, Stingl K, Weiland JD, Petoe MA (2019). An update on retinal prostheses. Clin Neurophysiol, 131(6), 1383-1398. (Read full article)
  9. Pfeiffer RL, Marc RE, Jones BW (2020). Müller Cell Metabolic Signatures: Evolutionary Conservation and Disruption in Disease. Trends Endocrinol Metab, 31(4), 320-329. (Read full article)
  10. Annamalai B, Nicholson C, Parsons N, Stephenson S, Atkinson C, Jones B, Rohrer B (2020). Immunization Against Oxidized Elastin Exacerbates Structural and Functional Damage in Mouse Model of Smoke-Induced Ocular Injury. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 61(3), 45. (Read full article)
  11. Bryan CD, Casey MA, Pfeiffer RL, Jones BW, Kwan KM (2020). Optic cup morphogenesis requires neural crest-mediated basement membrane assembly. Development, 147(4). (Read full article)
  12. Pfeiffer RL, Marc RE, Jones BW (2019). Persistent remodeling and neurodegeneration in late-stage retinal degeneration. Prog Retin Eye Res, 74, 100771. (Read full article)
  13. Tong J, Phu J, Khuu SK, Yoshioka N, Choi AY, Nivison-Smith L, Marc RE, Jones BW, Pfeiffer RL, Kalloniatis M, Zangerl B (2019). Development of a Spatial Model of Age-Related Change in the Macular Ganglion Cell Layer to Predict Function From Structural Changes. Am J Ophthalmol, 208, 166-177. (Read full article)
  14. Choi AYJ, Nivison-Smith L, Phu J, Zangerl B, Khuu SK, Jones BW, Pfeiffer RL, Marc RE, Kalloniatis M (2019). Contrast sensitivity isocontours of the central visual field. Sci Rep, 9(1), 11603. (Read full article)
  15. Heng JS, Rattner A, Stein-OBrien GL, Winer BL, Jones BW, Vernon HJ, Goff LA, Nathans J (2019). Hypoxia tolerance in the Norrin-deficient retina and the chronically hypoxic brain studied at single-cell resolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 116(18), 9103-9114. (Read full article)
  16. Lauritzen JS, Sigulinsky CL, Anderson JR, Kalloniatis M, Nelson NT, Emrich DP, Rapp C, McCarthy N, Kerzner E, Meyer M, Jones BW, Marc RE (2016). Rod-cone crossover connectome of mammalian bipolar cells. J Comp Neurol, 527(1), 87-116. (Read full article)
  17. Pfeiffer RL, Anderson JR, Emrich DP, Dahal J, Sigulinsky CL, Morrison HAB, Yang JH, Watt CB, Rapp KD, Kondo M, Terasaki H, Garcia JC, Marc RE, Jones BW (2019). Pathoconnectome Analysis of Müller Cells in Early Retinal Remodeling. Adv Exp Med Biol, 1185, 365-370. (Read full article)
  18. Marc RE, Sigulinsky CL, Pfeiffer RL, Emrich D, Anderson JR, Jones BW (2018). Heterocellular Coupling Between Amacrine Cells and Ganglion Cells. Front Neural Circuits, 12, 90. (Read full article)
  19. Nagarajan N, Jones BW, West PJ, Marc RE, Capecchi MR (2017). Corticostriatal circuit defects in Hoxb8 mutant mice. Mol Psychiatry, 23(9), 1868-1877. (Read full article)
  20. Kyle Loizos, Robert Marc, Mark Humayun, James R Anderson, Bryan W Jones, Gianluca Lazzi (2018). Increasing Electrical Stimulation Efficacy in Degenerated Retina: Stimulus Waveform Design in a Multiscale Computational Model. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng, 1111-1120.
  21. Phu J, Khuu SK, Nivison-Smith L, Zangerl B, Choi AYJ, Jones BW, Pfeiffer RL, Marc RE, Kalloniatis M (2017). Pattern Recognition Analysis Reveals Unique Contrast Sensitivity Isocontours Using Static Perimetry Thresholds Across the Visual Field. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 58(11), 4863-4876. (Read full article)
  22. Yoshioka N, Zangerl B, Nivison-Smith L, Khuu SK, Jones BW, Pfeiffer RL, Marc RE, Kalloniatis M (2017). Pattern Recognition Analysis of Age-Related Retinal Ganglion Cell Signatures in the Human Eye. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 58(7), 3086-3099. (Read full article)
  23. Kerzner E, Lex A, Sigulinsky CL, Umess T, Jones BW, Marc RE, Meyer M (2017). Graffinity: Visualizing Connectivity in Large Graphs. Comput Graph Forum, 36(3), 251-260. (Read full article)
  24. Wahlin KJ, Maruotti JA, Sripathi SR, Ball J, Angueyra JM, Kim C, Grebe R, Li W, Jones BW, Zack DJ (2017). Photoreceptor Outer Segment-like Structures in Long-Term 3D Retinas from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells. Sci Rep, 7(1), 766. (Read full article)
  25. Merriman DK, Sajdak BS, Li W, Jones BW (2016). Seasonal and post-trauma remodeling in cone-dominant ground squirrel retina. Exp Eye Res, 150, 90-105. (Read full article)
  26. Jones BW, Pfeiffer RL, Ferrell WD, Watt CB, Marmor M, Marc RE (2016). Retinal remodeling in human retinitis pigmentosa. Exp Eye Res, 150, 149-65. (Read full article)
  27. Pfeiffer RL, Marc RE, Kondo M, Terasaki H, Jones BW (2016). Müller cell metabolic chaos during retinal degeneration. Exp Eye Res, 150, 62-70. (Read full article)
  28. Jones BW, Pfeiffer RL, Ferrell WD, Watt CB, Tucker J, Marc RE (2016). Retinal Remodeling and Metabolic Alterations in Human AMD. Front Cell Neurosci, 10, 103. (Read full article)
  29. Woodell A, Jones BW, Williamson T, Schnabolk G, Tomlinson S, Atkinson C, Rohrer B (2016). A Targeted Inhibitor of the Alternative Complement Pathway Accelerates Recovery From Smoke-Induced Ocular Injury. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 57(4), 1728-37. (Read full article)
  30. Molnr T, Yarishkin O, Iuso A, Barabas P, Jones B, Marc RE, Phuong TT, Kriaj D (2016). Store-Operated Calcium Entry in Müller Glia Is Controlled by Synergistic Activation of TRPC and Orai Channels. J Neurosci, 36(11), 3184-98. (Read full article)
  31. Frech TM, Boynton K, Downs-Kelly E, Jones B, Kriesel JD, Peterson K (2016). Eosinophilic Esophagitis in Two Patients with Systemic Sclerosis. Case Rep Rheumatol, 2016, 6410421. (Read full article)
  32. Lorach H, Kung J, Beier C, Mandel Y, Dalal R, Huie P, Wang J, Lee S, Sher A, Jones BW, Palanker D (2015). Development of Animal Models of Local Retinal Degeneration. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 56(8), 4644-52. (Read full article)
  33. Marc RE, Anderson JR, Jones BW, Sigulinsky CL, Lauritzen JS (2014). The AII amacrine cell connectome: a dense network hub. Front Neural Circuits, 8, 104. (Read full article)
  34. Marc RE, Jones BW, Watt CB, Anderson JR, Sigulinsky C, Lauritzen S (2013). Retinal connectomics: towards complete, accurate networks. Prog Retin Eye Res, 37, 141-62. (Read full article)
  35. Lauritzen JS, Anderson JR, Jones BW, Watt CB, Mohammed S, Hoang JV, Marc RE (2012). ON cone bipolar cell axonal synapses in the OFF inner plexiform layer of the rabbit retina. J Comp Neurol, 521(5), 977-1000. (Read full article)
  36. Barabas P, Liu A, Xing W, Chen CK, Tong Z, Watt CB, Jones BW, Bernstein PS, Kriaj D (2013). Role of ELOVL4 and very long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in mouse models of Stargardt type 3 retinal degeneration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 110(13), 5181-6. (Read full article)
  37. Marc RE, Jones BW, Lauritzen JS, Watt CB, Anderson JR (2012). Building retinal connectomes. Curr Opin Neurobiol, 22(4), 568-74. (Read full article)
  38. Jones BW, Kondo M, Terasaki H, Lin Y, McCall M, Marc RE (2012). Retinal remodeling. Jpn J Ophthalmol, 56(4), 289-306. (Read full article)
  39. Lin Y, Jones BW, Liu A, Vazquz-Chona FR, Lauritzen JS, Ferrell WD, Marc RE (2012). Rapid glutamate receptor 2 trafficking during retinal degeneration. Mol Neurodegener, 7, 7. (Read full article)
  40. D Lee, FV-Chona, W Ferrell, B Tam, BW Jones, RE Marc, O Moritz (February 2012). Dysmorphic Photoreceptors in a P23H Mutant Rhodopsin Model of Retinitis Pigmentosa are Metabolically Active and Capable of Regenerating to Reverse Retinal Degeneration. J Neurosci, 32(6), 2121-2128.
  41. Ross JW, Fernandez de Castro JP, Zhao J, Samuel M, Walters E, Rios C, Bray-Ward P, Jones BW, Marc RE, Wang W, Zhou L, Noel JM, McCall MA, DeMarco PJ, Prather RS, Kaplan HJ (January 2012). Generation of an inbred miniature pig model of retinitis pigmentosa. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 53(1), 501-507.
  42. Lin Y, Jones BW, Liu A, Tucker JF, Rapp K, Luo L, Baehr W, Bernstein PS, Watt CB, Yang JH, Shaw MV, Marc RE (2011). Retinoid receptors trigger neuritogenesis in retinal degenerations. FASEB J, 26(1), 81-92. (Read full article)
  43. Jones BW, Kondo M, Terasaki H, Watt CB, Rapp K, Anderson J, Lin Y, Shaw MV, Yang JH, Marc RE (2011). Retinal remodeling in the Tg P347L rabbit, a large-eye model of retinal degeneration. J Comp Neurol, 519(14), 2713-33. (Read full article)
  44. Anderson JR, Jones BW, Watt CB, Shaw MV, Yang JH, Demill D, Lauritzen JS, Lin Y, Rapp KD, Mastronarde D, Koshevoy P, Grimm B, Tasdizen T, Whitaker R, Marc RE (2011). Exploring the retinal connectome. Mol Vis, 17, 355-79. (Read full article)
  45. Anderson JR, Mohammed S, Grimm B, Jones BW, Koshevoy P, Tasdizen T, Whitaker R, Marc RE (2010). The Viking viewer for connectomics: scalable multi-user annotation and summarization of large volume data sets. J Microsc, 241(1), 13-28. (Read full article)
  46. Tasdizen T, Koshevoy P, Grimm BC, Anderson JR, Jones BW, Watt CB, Whitaker RT, Marc RE (2010). Automatic mosaicking and volume assembly for high-throughput serial-section transmission electron microscopy. J Neurosci Methods, 193(1), 132-44. (Read full article)
  47. Jurrus E, Paiva ARC, Watanabe S, Jorgensen EM, Anderson JR, Jones BW, Whitaker R, Marc R, Tasdizen T (2010). Detection of neuron membranes in electron microscopy images using auto-context. Med Image Anal.
  48. Anderson JR, Jones BW, Yang JH, Shaw MV, Watt CB, Koshevoy P, Spaltenstein J, Jurrus E, U V K, Whitaker RT, Mastronarde D, Tasdizen T, Marc RE (2009). A computational framework for ultrastructural mapping of neural circuitry. PLoS Biol, 7(3), e1000074. (Read full article)
  49. Jurrus E, Whitaker R, Jones BW, Marc R, Tasdizen T (2009). AN OPTIMAL-PATH APPROACH FOR NEURAL CIRCUIT RECONSTRUCTION. Proc IEEE Int Symp Biomed Imaging, 2008(4541320), 1609-1612. (Read full article)
  50. Marc RE, Jones BW, Watt CB, Vazquez-Chona F, Vaughan DK, Organisciak DT (2008). Extreme retinal remodeling triggered by light damage: implications for age related macular degeneration. Mol Vis, 14, 782-806. (Read full article)
  51. Marc RE, Jones BW, Anderson JR, Kinard K, Marshak DW, Wilson JH, Wensel T, Lucas RJ (2007). Neural reprogramming in retinal degeneration. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 48(7), 3364-71. (Read full article)
  52. Marc RE, Kalloniatis M, Jones BW (2005). Excitation mapping with the organic cation AGB2+. Vision Res, 45(28), 3454-68. (Read full article)
  53. Jones BW, Watt CB, Marc RE (2005). Retinal remodelling. Clin Exp Optom, 88(5), 282-91. (Read full article)
  54. Marc RE, Jones BW (2003). Retinal remodeling in inherited photoreceptor degenerations. Mol Neurobiol, 28(2), 139-47. (Read full article)
  55. Jones BW, Watt CB, Frederick JM, Baehr W, Chen CK, Levine EM, Milam AH, Lavail MM, Marc RE (2003). Retinal remodeling triggered by photoreceptor degenerations. J Comp Neurol, 464(1), 1-16. (Read full article)
  56. Marc RE, Jones BW, Watt CB, Strettoi E (2003). Neural remodeling in retinal degeneration. Prog Retin Eye Res, 22(5), 607-55. (Read full article)
  57. Marc RE, Jones BW (2002). Molecular phenotyping of retinal ganglion cells. J Neurosci, 22(2), 413-27. (Read full article)

Review

  1. Jones BW, Marc RE, Pfeiffer RL, Kolb H, Fernandez E, Nelson R (1995). Retinal Degeneration, Remodeling and Plasticity. [Review]. (Read full article)
  2. Jones BW, Marc RE (2005). Retinal remodeling during retinal degeneration. [Review]. Exp Eye Res, 81(2), 123-37. (Read full article)

Book Chapter

  1. Bryan W Jones, and Robert E Marc (2020). Retinal Connectomics. In Editor-in-Chief: Bernd Fritzsch (Ed.), The Senses: A Comprehensive Reference (2nd). Elsevier.

Conference Proceedings

  1. V Jagadeesh, BS Manjunath, J Anderson, B Jones, R Marc, SK Fisher (2012). Online parameter estimation in dynamic Markov Random Fields for image sequence analysis. International Conference on Image Processing. Proceedings, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

Editorial

  1. Jones BW, Lewis GP (2016). Special issue on retinal remodeling. Exp Eye Res, 150, 1-3. (Read full article)

Abstract

  1. Lauritzen JS, Jones BW, Watt CB, Mohammed S, Anderson JR, Marc RE (2012). Diffusely-Stratified OFF Cone Bipolar Cell Inputs to Amacrine Cells in the ON Inner Plexiform Layer. [Abstract]. ARVO 2012.