Through a combination of cell culture and microsurgery techniques, developing eye tissue can be transplanted into blinded animals, which differentiates into morphologically complete eyes at the site of the graft.  Further, through the misexpression of specific ion channels in the host animal, we can promote afferent innervation of the developing eyes and guide innervation to specific targets.  Behavioral data using a visual associative learning assay reveal these eyes are functional, even when present at ectopic locations along the cranial-caudal axis.  This work has implications both in developmental neurobiology, where the role of membrane physiology in axon guidance is only beginning to be understood, as well as regenerative medicine, where scientists hope to one day implant and connect sensory structures grown in culture.

While Xenopus is an established model to probe early developmental pathways during embryogenesis, there are currently few cognitive assays to examine learning or memory in the species.  This problem has been a critical barrier in the field for many years - we have the ability to alter development in a way that mimics human disease, but do not have a way to examine the behavioral consequences of such changes.  To overcome this barrier our team developed an automated platform which uses motion tracking cameras to train individual tadpoles in real-time.  The device can autonomously measure learning and memory rates without input from the investigator and is ideal for high throughput screens comparing the variety of wild type animals with a variety of experimental treatments.