Loeb Professor of the Natural Sciences Samuel L. Kunes, an expert in the field of vision and the brain, accepted tenure in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology last month.

Kunes' studies on the common fruit fly, drosophilia melanogaster, showed for the first time that some instructive signals for vision can be generated in the eye instead of in the brain.

His current research focuses on the molecular mechanisms underlying this precise neural circuitry.

Before coming to Harvard in 1993, Kunes was a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Harvard offered him tenure in December of last year.

He said his most important accomplishment has been his observations on the role of proteins transported along electrical-impulse transmitting axons in the development of the nervous system.

According to Hong Yang, a graduate student in Kunes' lab, Kunes solved an old question in the field of molecular biology concerning the communication between the eye and visual centers of the brain. Kunes proved how signaling molecules known as Hedgehog and Spitz transmit signals through the eye and affect brain development.

Throughout his career, Kunes has also employed innovative laboratory techniques for the exploration of visual systems in the fruit fly. Kunes is one of the first researchers to use a process called Confocal microscopy to represent eye tissues in the fruit fly.

His original work includes several recent publications on the subject of retina axons.