Lab Overview
Suva Roy, PhD, is focused on understanding the functions of retinal cell types in the context of natural vision and visual disorders. His lab combines a variety of techniques, including large-scale multielectrode arrays, viral vectors, optogenetics, light-sheet fluorescence imaging, anatomical tracing, and computational modeling, to answer fundamental questions on visual processing in the retina.
The lab is also engaged in a number of collaborative and highly interdisciplinary projects aimed at mapping retinotectal and retinogeniculate connectivity and identifying signaling disruptions in retinal ganglion cells using new and promising models of glaucoma.
About Our Research
Trained in physics and neuroscience, Dr. Roy has developed novel experimental platforms and imaging systems for high-resolution, high-throughput measurements of neural activity in ex-vivo retina. He is leading a National Institutes of Health-funded comparative study establishing a new model for basic and translational retinal research. The long-term goal of his lab is to identify cellular and neural targets for delivering genes/drugs to halt disease progression and restore vision in blinding diseases.
The Roy Lab is focused on understanding how different retinal cell types work in concert to generate vision and how vision is impaired in diseases such as glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. The lab uses a multidisciplinary and comparative approach to study the organization and function of neural circuits in the retina, retinal projections to the brain, and structural and functional anomalies within the retina in blinding diseases. The knowledge gained from these studies is used to identify molecular and neural targets for vision restorative therapies.
The lab is also developing novel imaging, computational, and virus-based gene delivery techniques for retinal research.
Current research projects:
- Functional diversity of retinal ganglion cells in a cone-dominated retina
- Dopamine: Retinal adaptation and diseases
- Retinotectal projections across species (collaborative)
- Sensing ocular stress in glaucoma
Tools:
- Multielectrode array recordings
- Viral vector-based gene delivery
- Ocular imaging (fundus, OCT)
- Light sheet fluorescence imaging
- Anatomical tracing
- Computational modeling
Research Interests
- Retinal cell types, circuits, and computations
- Light adaptation and neuromodulation
- Retinal projections to the brain
- Retinal imaging
- Glaucoma
- Vision restoration
Research Publications
- GABAergic Inhibition Controls Receptive Field Size, Sensitivity, and Contrast Preference of Direction Selective Retinal Ganglion Cells Near the Threshold of Vision. Roy S, Yao X, Rathinavelu J, Field GD.J Neurosci. 2024 Mar 13;44(11):e1979232023.
- Large-scale interrogation of retinal cell functions by 1-photon light-sheet microscopy. Roy S, Wang D, Rudzite AM, Perry B, Scalabrino ML, Thapa M, Gong Y, Sher A, Field GD. Cell Rep Methods. 2023 Apr 24;3(4):100453.
- An optical approach for mapping functional connectivity at single-cell resolution in brain circuits.Roy S, Field GD. Cell Rep Methods. 2022 Aug 22;2(8):100272.
- High-resolution light-field microscopy with patterned illumination. Wang D, Roy S, Rudzite AM, Field GD, Gong Y. Biomed Opt Express. 2021 Jun 8;12(7):3887-3901.
- Inter-mosaic coordination of retinal receptive fields. Roy S, Jun NY, Davis EL, Pearson J & Field GD. Nature, 1-5, 2021.
Opportunities
The lab is actively recruiting students and postdocs to work on several projects aimed at exploring:
- neuromodulatory mechanisms of light adaptation,
- cell-type diversity and projections underlying cone-dominated vision,
- neural underpinnings for signaling in glaucoma, and
- computational modeling of retinal signaling.
Enthusiastic and motivated candidates should contact Dr. Roy at suva.roy@hsc.utah.edu.