{"id":239643,"date":"2026-06-25T22:24:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/first-3d-views-of-human-cone-opsins-reveal-how-daylight-vision-reacts-so-fast"},"modified":"2026-06-25T22:24:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T03:24:02","slug":"first-3d-views-of-human-cone-opsins-reveal-how-daylight-vision-reacts-so-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/first-3d-views-of-human-cone-opsins-reveal-how-daylight-vision-reacts-so-fast","title":{"rendered":"First 3D views of human cone opsins reveal how daylight vision reacts so fast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/first-3d-views-of-human-cone-opsins-reveal-how-daylight-vision-reacts-so-fast2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The retina of the human eye contains 6\u20137 million cone cells. These cells contain light-sensitive proteins known as cone opsins. They enable us to perceive our surroundings in detail in daylight. They allow us to see the world in thousands of colors: red strawberries, green leaves, the blue sky. They also enable us to see all the objects around us clearly. And they allow us to perceive fast movements, such as the rush of a train or the flight of a dragonfly.<\/p>\n<p>Often, however, these all-rounders of daylight vision are also involved in retinal diseases. Impairment of cone receptor function, caused by genetic mutations or other degenerative processes, can lead to disorders such as color blindness and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease affecting the central retina and causing progressive vision loss.<\/p>\n<p>In a new study, Polina Isaikina and Sarah L. Schmidt, two researchers from the Center for Life <i>Science<\/i>s at PSI, have succeeded for the first time in determining the three-dimensional structure of human cone opsins in their dark state and showing how their molecular architecture enables their rapid activation by light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The retina of the human eye contains 6\u20137 million cone cells. These cells contain light-sensitive proteins known as cone opsins. They enable us to perceive our surroundings in detail in daylight. They allow us to see the world in thousands of colors: red strawberries, green leaves, the blue sky. They also enable us to see [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,269],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-239643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-life-extension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239643\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}