Jay Neitz, PhD, is the Bishop Professor in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Washington, where he and his wife and longtime collaborator, Maureen Neitz, study the biology of human vision. His research has spanned the genetics and neuroscience of color vision, retinal circuitry, gene therapy, and myopia.

The Neitz laboratory is perhaps best known for demonstrating that gene therapy can confer red-green color vision in adult primates, work named one of TIME magazine’s Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of 2009. Their studies of human cone photopigment genes subsequently led to discoveries linking genetic variation to myopia and to the development of the contrast theory of myopia. His current work focuses on translating these insights into new approaches for understanding and controlling myopia progression.