Core Grant in Vision Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Vanderbilt Vision Research Center (VVRC) spanning the College of Arts & Science, Peabody College of Education, School of Engineering and School of Medicine requests continued support for five modules. (1) The Animal Care Module provides specialized enrichment, surgical support and veterinary care of nonhuman primates and other large animals and murine electroretinogram phenotyping. (2) The Computer Module provides hardware installation and maintenance, software development for visual displays and real-time data acquisition and analysis, webpage maintenance and production of illustrations for journals, posters and web pages. (3) The Image Processing Module aids acquisition and analysis of functional brain imaging, optical imaging, confocal and standard microscopy and other imaging data. (4) The Gene & Protein Analysis Module provides timely and economical access to gene microarray, protein mass spectrometry and histopathology services. (5) The Shop Module repairs, designs and fabricates specialized optical, mechanical and electronic instruments. Administrative support is included to ensure continued smooth and stable operation of the VVRC research and training missions. Modules are directed by investigators with NEI funding, have talented and experienced staff and provide services that are otherwise not available or would be prohibitively expensive or slow. During the last grant period, each module was used moderately or extensively by more than three investigators. VVRC investigators produced several hundred publications that made fundamental contributions to basic and clinical visual science. This Core grant has increased collaborations between basic and clinical vision researchers across the Vanderbilt campus and with other institutions. The Core grant has improved our ability to recruit world-class vision researchers resulting in extensive NEI-sponsored research at Vanderbilt. The high level of performance of VVRC investigators, which depends on renewed Core grant support, synergizes with campus-wide initiatives in biomedical research and training at Vanderbilt.