Sustainable Modeling of Retina Synapses with MCell/CellBlender
Official title: Sustainable Development of MCell4/CellBlender for Realistic Simulation of Synaptic Transmission at Retinal Rod Photoreceptors
Funded at Salk Institute for Biological Studies · NIH-11343008 · Data updated 2026-11-12
A funded project will build realistic computer models of retina synapses to understand how rod cells communicate with neighboring cells in dim light.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Salk Institute for Biological Studies NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (La Jolla, UNITED STATES) |
| Project start | August 1, 2026 |
| Project end | May 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $187,500 |
| NIH project number | 1R50EY038796-01 |
| Project ID | NIH-11343008 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Not applicable to patients; this is a preclinical computational modeling project.
✕Less likely to help
No direct patient participation in this grant.
What this research studies
This project combines bench experiments with advanced computer modeling to simulate glutamate signaling at rod, bipolar, and horizontal cell synapses in the retina. Researchers will expand the MCell/CellBlender platform to mirror real biological data and test how synaptic noise and single-photon signals are detected. They will measure precise glutamate release and how transporters shape glutamate levels to improve the fidelity of the simulations. The work relies on collaborations with experimentalists to align simulations with what is observed in live cells and tissue. Results aim to reveal how retina cells process very dim light, potentially informing vision research and computational neuroscience tools.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: Better understanding of how the retina encodes dim light could inform vision science and improve computational models used in research and education.
How similar studies have gone: Previous work has successfully used detailed simulations to capture synaptic dynamics, and this project extends those methods with newer computational tools.
Where this research is happening
-
Salk Institute for Biological Studies
La Jolla, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Bartol, Thomas Matthew — Salk Institute for Biological Studies
- Study coordinator: Bartol, Thomas Matthew
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.