The Fovea

Since 1996, the research focus of Dr. Andreas Bringmann has been the Müller cell and the retina. He studied Biology (Animal Physiology) and worked in the basic sciences after the study. He was from 1990 to 2002 scientific assistant at the Department of Neurophysiology, Paul Flechsig Institute of Brain Research, Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig (Head of the Department: Andreas Reichenbach, MD). Since 2002, he is the Head of the Research Laboratory of the Department of Ophthalmology and Eye Clinic, Medical Faculty of the University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany. He has published 181 peer-reviewed original papers, 30 review articles, 10 book chapters, and 2 books. Dr. Peter Wiedemann is Professor of Ophthalmology at Leipzig University. He is a vitreoretinal specialist whose expertise includes complex vitreoretinal surgery and macular disorders. Dr. Wiedemann earned his medical degree at Erlangen University, Germany. He started ophthalmic research at the Doheny Eye Institute, Los Angeles, with Dr. Stephen Ryan and completed residency and fellowship in ophthalmology at Cologne University with Prof. Klaus Heimann. In his research Dr. Wiedemann studies retinal and macular disorders and Müller cells pathophysiology. He has authored over 500 peer reviewed publications in ophthalmology and is co-editor of the textbook Ryan´s Retina. He is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the German Ophthalmological Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Club Jules Gonin. He is also a Fellow of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis (AOI), the European Academy of Ophthalmology, and a Board Member of the International Council of Ophthalmology (ICO).

• 1. Introduction: Optical properties of the retina2. Basic structure of the retina3. Retinal glia4. Nonmammalian fovea5. Primate Fovea6. Comparison of the nonmammalian and primate fovea7. Development of the fovea8. Tractional disorders of the human fovea