Prakash Kara, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Neurosciences (MUSC) and
Adjunct Asst. Professor of Bioengineering (Clemson)
Adjunct Asst. Professor of Bioengineering (Clemson)
BSc(Med)(Hons), Physiology 1990, Univ. of Cape Town, South Africa
MSc(Med), Physiology, 1993, University of Cape Town
PhD, Physiology and Biophysics, 1998, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard Medical School, 1998-2000
Research Associate, Harvard Medical School, 2000-2003
Instructor, Harvard Medical School, 2003-2005
MSc(Med), Physiology, 1993, University of Cape Town
PhD, Physiology and Biophysics, 1998, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard Medical School, 1998-2000
Research Associate, Harvard Medical School, 2000-2003
Instructor, Harvard Medical School, 2003-2005
Research Interests
Bio-Neuro-Informatics, Brain plasticity,
Visual Neuroscience,
Binocular disparity, Two-photon microscopy, Multi-site and
multi-electrode electrophysiology
Binocular disparity, Two-photon microscopy, Multi-site and
multi-electrode electrophysiology
Email:
Office: CRI 413 (MUSC campus)
Phone: 843.792.2137
Office: CRI 413 (MUSC campus)
Phone: 843.792.2137
Sensory Systems Neuroscience Laboratory ...more
Honors, Awards, and Professional Activities
W A & Gordon Jolly Prize (Faculty of Medicine - Univ. of Cape Town), 1989Medical Research Council (S. Africa) scholarships (Honors, MSc Research), 1990-1992Cecil John Adams Traveling Fellowship, 1992Helen Keller Eye Research Foundation Fellowship, 1994 & 1997Dana Foundation, 2006Whitehall Foundation, 2007NIH R01, 2007-2012Society Memberships:
Society for Neuroscience, USAReviewer for Professional Journals:
Journal of NeuroscienceJournal of Neurophysiology International Journal of Developmental NeuroscienceVisual NeuroscienceSelected Invited Talks:
University and ETH Zurich, Switzerland, Institute of Neuroinformatics. Oct 4, 2007Optical Society of America, Berkeley CA, Symposium: Two eyes one Brain. Sept 17, 2007Montreal Neurological Institute, Invited Killam lecture series speaker. Sept 11, 2007Northwestern University Physiology Dept. and Prairie Technologies Symposium. June 28, 2007NIH National Eye Institute, Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research. May 30, 2007University of Alabama at Birmingham. Symposium: Frontiers in Neuroimaging. Oct 20, 2006 Physiological Society, London, UK. Symposium: Signal processing in single cells & networks. July 6, 2006Barrow Neurological Institute, Division of Neuroscience Research. May 30, 2006Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience. Nov. 4, 2005University of Miami School of Medicine, Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. September 20, 2004FASEB Summer Research Conference on Retinal Neurobiology and Visual Processing. July 17-22, 2004University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dept. Cell and Molecular Physiology. June 8, 2004University of California at Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology. April 26, 2004Society for Neuroscience Satellite Symposium. Developments in Multichannel Recording. Nov 2001Current Research
Our research examines the sensory function of hundreds of neurons simultaneously in the living brain and with single-cell resolution. This is possible because of new in vivo techniques of high resolution two-photon microscopy and parallel electrical recordings. This research impacts the rehabilitation of brain function for restoring function to the compromised cerebral cortex, as occurs in various forms of neural blindness. Our work also has implications for improved machine vision and robotics.
Figure 1. Functional imaging in the living brain: Single-cell resolution images from the cerebral cortex.
Figure 2. Simultaneous electrophysiological mapping of receptive fields from three sites in the brain: Retina, thalamus, and visual cortex.
Figure 1. Functional imaging in the living brain: Single-cell resolution images from the cerebral cortex.
Figure 2. Simultaneous electrophysiological mapping of receptive fields from three sites in the brain: Retina, thalamus, and visual cortex.
Positions Open
PhD and postdoctoral fellowships can be made available to exceptionally qualified and highly motivated candidates.
Recent Publications
Ohki K, Chung S, Kara P, Hubener M, Bonhoeffer T, Reid RC (2006). Highly ordered arrangement of single neurons in orientation pinwheels. Nature 442, 925-928.
Ohki K, Chung S, Ch'ng, YH, Kara P, and Reid RC (2005). Micro-architecture of visual cortex: functional maps with single-cell precision. Nature 433, 597-603.
Kara P, and Reid RC. (2003). The efficacy of retinal spikes in driving cortical responses. J Neurosci. 23, 8547-8557.
Kanold PO, Kara P, Reid RC, and Shatz, CJ. (2003). The subplate is required for functional organization of visual cortical columns. Science 301, 521-525.
Kara, P, Pezaris JS, Yurgenson S, and Reid, RC. (2002). The spatial receptive field of thalamic inputs to single cortical simple cells revealed by the interaction of visual and electrical stimulation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 99, 16261-16266.
Kara P, Reinagel P, and Reid RC. (2000). Low response variability in simultaneously recorded retinal, thalamic, and cortical neurons. Neuron 27, 635-646.
