This seminar will also stream via Zoom. For the link, please email: jmarcus@upenn.edu

Sara Thomasy
Professor of Comparative Ophthalmology
UC Davis

The Monkeys Have It: Novel Nonhuman Primate Models of Ocular Disease

Nonhuman primates (NHPs) share similar ocular development, anatomy and physiology to humans due to their close phylogenetic relationship. They exhibit high visual acuity relative to other mammals with frontally positioned eyes to improve binocular and stereoscopic vision. Furthermore, NHPs exhibit incredible diversity in their vision with eyes uniquely adapted to their ecological niche. Eye size varies widely from the massive globes of the nocturnal tarsier to the small eyes of the diurnal gorilla. Color vision also differs amongst NHPs with nocturnal galagos and loris exhibiting monochromacy while diurnal catarrhines (old world monkeys) are trichromatic.  In this session, we will discuss these visual adaptations as well as explore the value of NHP models in advancing our understanding of vision as well as the development of novel therapeutic strategies to prevent or treat blindness, particularly for retinal diseases. We will specifically examine three models of retinal disease discovered at the California National Primate Research Center – age-related macular degeneration, achromatopsia, and autosomal dominant optic atrophy.