Professor, Developmental & Cell Biology
School of Biological Sciences

Regulation of axonal growth, development of nerve connections, nerve injury and regeneration

devcell.bio.uci.edu/faculty/ronald-meyer/

Our primary interest is in CNS nerve injury and repair. We are exploring this issue using the visual system. When the optic nerve of a mouse or any other mammal is severed, the nerve fails to regenerate and the animals are permanently blind. However, in goldfish, the severed nerve will regrow back to the brain to restore orderly nerve connections and vision. Much of our current work is focused on understanding how the optic nerve responds to injury and how the neurons in the brain respond to the loss of their nerve connection in the goldfish. In vivo imaging technology using widefield and 2 photon microscopy is used to observe the injured and regenerating axons in the living brain so as to understand the dynamics of their behavior and response to treatments. Electrophysiological recording from the visual centers of the brain is utilized to determine how these neurons compensate for the loss of neuronal input and subsequently adjust to newly formed connections during regeneration.

Wu, T., Mohanty, S., Gomez-Godinez, V., Shi, L.Z., Liaw, L.H., Miotke, J., Meyer, R.L., Berns, M.W. (2012) Neuronal growth cones respond to laser-induced axonal damage, J. R. Soc. Interface, 9:535-547.

Wu,T., Nieminen, T.A., Mohanty, S., Miotke, J, Meyer, R.L., Rubinsztein-Dunlop, H., Berns, M.W. (2012) A photon-driven micromotor can direct nerve fiber (axon) growth, Nat. Photonics, 6:62-67.

Dawson, A.J. and Meyer, R.L., (2008) Growth dynamics and morphology of regenerating optic fibers in tectum are altered by injury conditions: An in vivo imaging study in goldfish, Exp. Neurol., 210:592-601

Riegle, K.C. and Meyer, R.L. (2007) Rapid homeostatic plasticity in the intact adult visual system, J. Neurosci. 27: 10556-10567

Si, K, Miotke, J.A., Meyer, R.L., Wang, Z. (2008) Axonal rearrangement without reexpression of a growth associated marker: evidence from the compression of the retinotectal system in adult goldfish, Rest. Neurol. Neurosci., 25:535-547

Miotke, J.A., MacLennan, A.J., Meyer, R.L. (2007) Immunohistochemical localization of CNTFa in adult mouse retina and optic nerve following intraorbital nerve crush: Evidence for the axonal loss of a trophic factor receptor after injury, J. Comp. Neurol. 500: 384-400

Kolls, B.J. and Meyer, R.L. (2002) Spontaneous retinal activity is tonic and does not drive tectal activity during activity-dependent refinement. J. Neurosci. 22:2626-2636

Becker, C.G., Becker, T. and Meyer, R.L. (2001) Increased NCAM-180 immunoreactivity and maintenance of L1 immunoreactivity in injured optic fibers of adult mice. Exp. Neurol. 169: 338-448

Dawson, A.J. and Meyer, R.L. (2001) Regenerating optic fibers correct large-scale errors by random growth: Evidence from in vivo imaging. J. Comp. Neurol. 434:40-55

Synaptic Homeostasis in the Visual System, NIH EY013586

Reinnervation following sparse regeneration, NIH EY 014200

Cellular and Molecular Biosciences

Neurobiology

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=2038

Last updated
02/13/2012