DEPARTMENT OF VISION SCIENCES
Timothy W. Kraft, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Vision Sciences
Contact information:
Office - (205) 975-2885
Physical Address:
612 Worrell Building
924 18th Street South
Mailing Address:
WORB 612
1530 Third Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35294-4390
Biographical Sketch:
Education:
B.S., Life Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ph.D., Physiology, University of Minnesota
Secondary Appointments:
Department of Neurobiology
Department of Ophthalmology
Vision Science Research Center
Scholarly Activity:
Teaching:
VS 112 Ocular Anatomy: 32 lecture hours and 4 hours of lab covering in detail the anatomy of the eye and orbit
VS747 Retinal Physiology: 36 hours team taught graduate course focusing primarily on retinal electrophysiology
Research:
My laboratory works on the physiology and biophysics of photoreceptors, the retinal cells that convert light energy into electrochemical signals. By studying the properties of rod and cone cells one can understand how the responses of these nerve cells shape and influence human visual behavior. We use isolated retinal tissue from normal and diseased animals to directly measure the electronic response of photoreceptors to light.
Transgenic animal models of retinal degeneration provide an opportunity to investigate precisely how photoreceptor response properties are altered in physiologically challenging environments. By studying diseased tissues we hope to gain new understanding of normal phototransduction mechanisms as well as learn about the progressive loss of photoreceptor signaling ability in retinal diseases.
Other experiments are aimed at developing novel therapies; these may involve the insertion of new genes targeted specifically at the rod photoreceptors. We are exploring the differences between rod and cone phototransduction and are seeking to identify the key molecular components that determine the electrical response properties.
Publications
Savtchenko, A., Kraft, T. W., Molokanova, E. and Kramer, R. H., (2001) Growth factors regulate phototransduction by modulating cyclic nucleotide-gated channels through dephosphorylation of a specific tyrosine residue Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 98(10):5880-5885.
Zhang X., Wensel T. G., Kraft T. W. (2003) GTPase Regulators and Photoresponses in Cones of the Eastern Chipmunk. J. Neurosci. 23(4) 1287-1297.
Hancock, H. A., and Kraft, T. W. (2004). Oscillatory potentials analysis and ERGs of normal and diabetic rats. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. 45(3) 1002-1008.
L.M. Brockway, D.J. Benos, K.T. Keyser, and T.W. Kraft (2005) Blockade of amiloride-sensitive sodium channels alters multiple components of the mammalian electroretinogram. Visual Neuroscience vol 22: 2) 143-151.
Hancock, H. A., Ready, E. L., Guidry, C., Read, R. W. and Kraft, T. W. (2005) Acute aminoglycoside retinal toxicity in vivo and in vitro. Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. 46 (12): 4804-8.
Kraft, T. W., Allen, D., Petters, R., Hao, Y., Peng, Y.-W., and Wong, F. (2005) Altered light responses of single rod photoreceptors in transgenic pigs expressing P347L or P347S rhodopsin. Molecular Vision 11:1246-1256.
Additional Information:
Timothy W. Kraft's research into the neurobiology of color vision began at M.I. T. and shifted to primate retinal tissue during his postdoctoral years at Stanford and the Ophthalmology Department at the University of California San Francisco. That work included the first electrophysiologic recordings from individual human rod and cone photoreceptors. His association with Ophthalmology Departments at UCSF and as a former Assistant Professor in the UAB Department of Ophthalmology, have lead him to incorporate the pathologies of photoreceptor degeneration and acquired color vision losses into his studies of the physiology of retinal signal processing.