The people behind the papers – Kevin Emmerich and Jeff Mumm

Retinal regeneration has been mostly studied after widespread tissue injury, but it is not well understood how the retina regenerates at the cellular level following loss of specific cell types. In a new study, Jeff Mumm and colleagues selectively ablate retinal ganglion cells in zebrafish and find that the retina elicits different genetic responses in a context-dependent manner to replace lost cells. To find out more about the story behind the paper, we caught up with first author Kevin Emmerich and corresponding author Jeff Mumm, Associate Professor in Ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University.