Pranav Seth

Although the world outside still feels grey and wintry, under the microscope the retina reveals a vibrant landscape of color.
For #FluorescenceFriday: a section of the avian retina showing beautifully organized neuronal layers from inner to outer retina.
#Neuroscience #Retina #Microscopy

The Rise of Eyes Began With Just One

Vision Science makes the front page of NYT!!
featuring work from @neurofishh.bsky.social and @denilsson.bsky.social with comments from Berkeley's own @karthikshekhar.bsky.social
#visionscience

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/s...

Early for #FluorescenceFriday but who cares..

Retinal neural networks in a frame
Chicken retina whole mount showing amacrine cells, with their dendritic arborizations forming a connected mesh
A reminder that the retina is a powerful neural circuit shaping vision before ganglion cells even fire

A small greyish finch with a black chin, yellowish bill and a small red cap is perched on a curved branch. Its head is tilted to one side as it looks down at something below.

One of my favourite winter birds, a redpoll, checking things out below.
#Alberta #birds #birding 🪶🇨🇦

Old school markers, still strong
🟣 Calbindin labels double cone photoreceptors, bipolar cells, and ganglion cells.
🟢 Calretinin highlights horizontal cells, bipolar cells, and IPL stratification.
Avian retina circuitry, clearly written in layers.
#FluorescenceFriday #Neuroscience #Retina #Imaging

Two years since I first arrived at the beautiful #UniversityofSussex campus

Joined as a #Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2024.

Grateful for the experiences, challenges, growth, and the journey so far. Cheers to what’s ahead.

Thanks for a wonderful talk. I was in your audience today. I am a bird researcher too and was really impressed by your talk today about bird linguistics. Cheers.

Attended and presented a poster at the wonderful 2 day #ASABWinter2025 meeting in the beautiful city of #Edinburgh.
A coming together of researchers asking how sensory worlds shape #AnimalBehaviour.
A genuine sense of community across generations of animal ethologists.
@asab.org

Falsterbo is amazing. Hope you enjoyed😄

My parents, Retd Prof R K Seth and Retd Prof Dr Ranjana Seth, published a new research paper today.
Even at 69, they continue to push scientific boundaries. Watching them work with such dedication is one of my biggest inspirations.
Link: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/HRTTZ...

Frontiers | AAV-mediated transduction of songbird retina IntroductionGenetic manipulation of murine retinal tissue through ocular administration of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) has become a standard technique to...

This work opens reliable genetic access to diverse retinal cells, enabling gene delivery, pathway specific manipulation and emerging gene editing strategies.
doi.org/10.3389/fphy...

#AAV #Retina #GeneDelivery #VisionScience #Neuroscience #Songbirds #Photoreceptors

This gives a practical route for genetic payload delivery, reporter based mapping and targeted manipulation in systems that have lacked precise genetic access. It also creates room for future gene editing and therapeutic style strategies in avian retina. More in thread below..

Revisiting some older material and this paper came up again during a discussion about viral tools in avian retina. Our study was part of the Rising Stars in Avian Physiology collection and showed that AAV2 9 can reliably reach and transduce avian photoreceptors.
More in thread below..

Its truly mesmerizing, isn't it.

Thank you. Syre, Blue is Dapi, Green is Calretinin and Red is vGlut1

Thanks for the appreciation. It is indeed very beautiful.

Ending my #FluorescenceFriday with this beautiful avian retina image depicting the beautiful stratification in the avian eyes.
This is where complexity meets art.
#retina #avian #bird #plexiformlayer

#FluorescenceFriday

A sky of light within ✨
This is the ganglion cell layer of the avian retina. The nerve fiber layer lies beneath like a soft green current, carrying quiet signals forward.

Sometimes to see the universe with its beautiful scattered stars, one only has to look inside.

Turns out zebrafish cones are frenemies. Red/UV see and Green/Blue suppress...

Layers of vision, glowing green #FluorescenceFriday

Here, #photoreceptors expressing a #glutamate biosensor mark the first step in visual processing, with a single inner-retina #neuron (likely amacrine) revealing deeper circuit activity before signals ever reach the brain.
#Neuroscience #Microscopy

#FluorescenceFriday 🌿🔬 post:
Avian retina transduced with my AAVs carrying the #GluSNFR biosensor.
Bright blobs at the top mark photoreceptor terminals; meanwhile below, an RGC connects beautifully with bipolar cells, giving a glimpse of retinal circuitry in action.
#Retina #Neuroscience #AAV #2-P

Rising Stars in Avian Physiology: 2024 We are delighted to present the second Frontiers in Avian Physiology Research Topic "Rising Stars in Avian Physiology." The goal of this topic is to recognize future leaders in avian physiology who ar...

Thrilled to share that my paper “AAV-mediated transduction of songbird retina” (Frontiers in Physiology, 19 Mar 2025) is featured in the official Rising Stars in Avian Physiology 2024 e-book! 🐦🔬
🔗 www.frontiersin.org/research-top...

#AvianPhysiology #FrontiersInPhysiology

Thomas Euler speaking in front of a projected image.

Day 2 #Visionarium2025

@teuler.bsky.social talks about What is a cell type?

Presented my poster “AAV-based Strategy for 2P Imaging in the Avian Retina” at #ERM2025 in Pécs 🇭🇺. I am grateful for inspiring discussions on retinal circuitry, photoreceptors, regeneration & artificial vision, and for connecting with colleagues in #RetinaResearch & #Neuroscience.

✨🔬 #FluorescenceFriday
Confocal stack of chicken retina 🐥 — from inner nerve fibers up to photoreceptors.
Layer upon layer of mosaics, each cell type in its place.
Birds have remarkable visual systems, and under the microscope, they look absolutely stunning in detail.

#FluorescenceFriday #AAV #retina #Therapeutics #vision

Frontiers | AAV-mediated transduction of songbird retina IntroductionGenetic manipulation of murine retinal tissue through ocular administration of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) has become a standard technique to...

For me, this is just the beginning.
From my PhD on cryptochromes & magnetoreception → to my postdoc focus on viral vectors & retinal physiology, this journey is about building the tools to ask new questions.
Grateful to my collaborators & mentors 🙏
Full text here: doi.org/10.3389/fphy...

In just 6 months, the paper has:
Reached ~2,250 readers worldwide
Been downloaded 446 times (Top 15% of Frontiers papers)
Already cited in new work
Found interest across multiple countries & communities

With this approach, we achieved up to 60% retinal coverage, lighting up rods, cones (UV, blue, green, red), and double cones.
Here’s what that looks like 👇

Our study introduced a custom intraocular injection setup and showed that Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) can reliably transduce bird photoreceptors.
This is the first robust viral-vector pipeline for the avian retina.