CORE GRANT FOR VISION RESEARCH

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的总体目标是为39名主要研究人员和11名关联研究人员提供核心支持服务，以：(1)提高其研究的质量和数量；(2)促进不同背景和技能的调查人员之间的合作；(3)招募新的研究人员进行视觉研究。pi分为几个组：心理物理学/系统神经科学，视觉转导/视网膜变性/基因治疗，眼（晶状体/近视/青光眼）和临床研究。pi持有来自NEI的个人研究资助，而Associates持有来自其他来源的个人研究资助。核心课程包括5个模块：

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The broad goal of this proposal is to provide core support services for 39 principle investigators and 11 associated investigators to: (1) enhance the quality and quantity of their research; (2) facilitate collaborations between investigators with different backgrounds and skills; and (3) recruit new investigators to vision research. The PIs sort into several groups: psychophysics/systems neuroscience, visual transduction/retinal degeneration/gene therapy, eye (lens/ myopia/glaucoma), and clinical research. PIs hold individual research grants from NEI, and Associates hold individual grants from other sources. The Core includes 5 modules: Biostatistics provides expert assistance in experimental design and data analysis particularly for clinical studies. Computation-Illustration provides resources for scientific computing as well as expert computer support. Instrumentation provides for design and construction of optical and electrophysiological instruments that are unavailable from commercial sources. Molecular Biology provides DNA sequencing and gene mapping. Physiological Imaging, proposed here as a new module, would provide a new facility for multi-unit recording and an adjacent facility for optical recording of various functional signals from neural tissue in vitro, such as calcium, while imaging the whole cell by confocal microscopy. This module will greatly enhance the capabilities of the systems investigators and will provide new and efficient functional assays for investigators of molecular genetics and gene therapy. Altogether the Core accelerates our progress, improves opportunities for collaboration and helps translate basic research into clinical application.