Seminar: Jack Werner UC Davis - Optical Imaging of

Seminar: Jack Werner UC Davis - Optical Imaging of Human Retinal Function, 23rd June 2025, 1pm

Optical Imaging of Human Retinal Function

John S. Werner

Abstract: This talk will review research at UC Davis to image the human retina at high lateral and axial resolution using adaptive optics (AO) and optical coherence tomography (OCT).  This approach permits critical examination  of clinical OCT images and the attribution of the structures identified in the outer retinal bands of the photoreceptors.  Highimaging speed afforded by a Fourier-domain mode locked laser operating at 1.67 MHz and phase-variance processing  made it possible to image the subretinal vasculature (choroidal layers) at high contrast.  Analysis of serial volumetric images revealed phase changes of cone photoreceptors consistent with outer segment elongation that was proportional to stimulus intensity, as well as other morphological changes in the outer segments of single rods and cones.

Bio: John S. Werner is currently a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford.  He is a Distinguished Professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis in the Department  of Ophthalmology & Vision Science, and Department of Neurobiology, Physiology & Behavior.  

Professor Werner received his PhD in Psychology from Brown Unniversity, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Institute for Perception – TNO (Soesterberg, The Netherlands) and Department of Neurophysiology (University of Freiburg, Germany).  He was a faculty member at the University of Colorado, Boulder before moving to UC Davis.  Dr.  Werner has mentored PhD students at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the University of California, Davis, who now hold tenured positions in Asia, Europe, North America and the UK.