Marla Beth Feller is the Paul Licht Distinguished Professor in Biological Sciences and Member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. She studies the mechanisms that underpin the assembly of neural circuits during development. Feller is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Academy of Arts and Science and the National Academy of Science.

Early life and education

Feller was inspired to work in physics at high school, where she was taught by a graduate student. She studied physics at the

and graduated in 1985. She remained there for her graduate studies, working under the supervision of

Yuen-Ron Shen Yuen-Ron Shen () is a Chinese physicist. He is a professor emeritus of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, known for his work on non-linear optics. He was born in Shanghai and graduated from National Taiwan University. He received ...

on liquid crystals. During her doctorate she played

Ultimate Frisbee Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...

, and may have been one of the founders of the

women's Ultimate team. She completed her doctoral research in 1991, and embarked on a course in neural systems and behaviour at the

Woods Hole Research Center Woodwell Climate Research Center, formerly known as the Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC) until August 2020, is a scientific research organization that studies climate change impacts and solutions. The International Center for Climate Governance n ...

Research and career

After her PhD, Feller was a

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

Bell Labs Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

from 1992 to 1994, where she worked in the biological computation department with David W. Tank. She returned to the

, where she worked alongside Carla J. Shatz as a Miller postdoctoral fellow. Here she started to apply novel imaging approaches to

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

. Feller was appointed as a tenure-track investigator at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

in 1998. She joined the

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...

in 2000, first as the Silvo Varon Assistant Professor of Neuroregeneration and eventually as an Associate Professor. Feller was recruited to the

in 2007 and made Head of the Division of Neurobiology in 2013. Her research evaluates the mechanisms that underpin the developmental assembly of neural circuits. She primarily investigates the retina, combining

two-photon excitation microscopy Two-photon excitation microscopy (TPEF or 2PEF) is a fluorescence imaging technique that allows imaging of living tissue up to about one millimeter in thickness, with 0.64 μm lateral and 3.35 μm axial spatial resolution. Unlike traditional flu ...

and

electrophysiology Electrophysiology (from Greek , ''ēlektron'', "amber" etymology of "electron"">Electron#Etymology">etymology of "electron" , ''physis'', "nature, origin"; and , '' -logia'') is the branch of physiology that studies the electrical properties of b ...

to establish how young retinas generate retinal waves, and the role that these waves play in retinal development. She has monitored the

intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cell Intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs), also called photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGC), or melanopsin-containing retinal ganglion cells (mRGCs), are a type of neuron in the retina of the mammalian eye. The presence ...

(ipRGC) in newborn mice, identifying that they communicate with one another as part of a network that serves to boost retinal eye sensitivity. She has studied the ipRGC in mice, showing that even before the retina is fully developed a mouse can detect light. Her research also considers the organisation of neural circuitry that dictates directional sensitivity in the retina.

Awards and honours

* 2001

Kavli Frontiers of Science The Kavli Foundation, based in Los Angeles, California, is a foundation that supports the advancement of science and the increase of public understanding and support for scientists and their work. The Kavli Foundation was established in Decembe ...

Fellow * 2002 McKnight Foundation Scholar Award * 2010

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Roger Brown Loucks Lectureship * 2011 École des Neuroscience of Paris Sabbatical * 2011 France-Berkeley Fund Award * 2014 Brian Boycott Prize * 2016

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

Pioneers in Neuroscience Award * 2017 Elected a

Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

* 2018

Distinguished Faculty Mentor Award

Selected publications

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feller, Marla Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science American women neuroscientists American neuroscientists University of California, Berkeley faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni 21st-century American women