Raunak did his undergraduate studies in human physiology at Presidency College, University of Calcutta. After a year long research at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, he went on to pursue graduate studies in Neuroscience at the International Max Planck Research School, University of Goettingen, Germany. During graduate studies he worked with Jurgen Klingauf in the Dept. of Membrane Biophysics at the Max-Planck Inst. for Biophysical Chemistry headed by Nobel Laureate, Erwin Neher. He studied properties of synaptic transmission in hippocampal neurons – exo-endocyatosis of synaptic vesicles – using single molecule optical microscopy. Thereafter, he moved to Seattle and joined the lab of Fred Rieke for post-doc where he worked on cellular and circuit function in the retina. Here he did foundational work on identifying novel mechanisms by which key neural circuits operate in the fovea – a specialization in the retina (almost) unique to primates that dominate our visual experience. His lab addresses fundamental questions about retinal structure and function in diverse model systems with the aim of understanding cellular, synaptic and circuit mechanisms that shape diverse visual computations.
Email: raunak.sinha@wisc.edu
Tel: 608 263 6265