My lab studies vision restoration for outer retinal degeneration. Diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa cause progressive, irreversible loss of photoreceptors and associated vision loss, but the inner retina remains structurally intact. Our work centers on photopharmacology: light-activated small molecules delivered by intravitreal injection that bind to cells in the surviving retina and restore their sensitivity to light. We use whole-cell patch clamp and multi-electrode array recordings, combined with machine-learning analysis of population responses, to ask how photoswitch-treated retinas encode visual information at the level of single neurons and across populations of ganglion cells, and how that encoding compares to native vision. We develop and characterize novel photoswitches and dissect the structure–function relationships that govern their ability to restore sight. As a practicing vitreoretinal surgeon, the long-term goal of the lab is to translate this circuit-level understanding into treatments that recover meaningful vision and can be delivered in an outpatient setting.