RESEARCH
NEW HOPE IN THE
World’s First ‘PATHOCONNECTOME’
A map of retinal disease generated by Moran’s Marclab for Connectomics offers a deeper understanding of a host of neurodegenerative diseases. As Rebecca Pfeiffer, PhD, points to a 2-D image produced by a transmission electron microscope, her excitement is palpable. “That’s one of the most gorgeous I’ve ever seen,” said Pfeiffer, a research associate in Moran’s Marclab for Connectomics directed by Bryan W. Jones, PhD. It’s a green blob and a blue blob with a tiny gap of space between them to the untrained onlooker. But Pfeiffer can explain it as a revelation three years in the making. The blobs are neurons in the retina of the eye. The green one allows us to detect darkness—the blue one, light. And the gap of space between is actually a new connection formed between them. The two types of neurons shouldn’t be able to communicate with each other, but in retinal disease they do. Data from 946 retinal tissue samples is clear: The rewiring is a previously unknown way a disease-stricken eye keeps trying to do its job. A 2-D pathoconnectome image showing two retinal neurons (rod bipolar cell in blue, Aii amacrine cell in green). Yellow spots indicate locations of gap junctions. These junctions, shown at the arrow in the inset image, formed to allow electrical communication between the two neurons as the degenerating retina rewired itself during disease.
