CENTER FOR NAVIGATION AND COMMUNICATION SCIENCE

描述（由申请人提供）：日常生活中最引人注目的特征包括在我们的环境中导航和相互交流的能力。这些功能是生存的基础，但也是在患病或衰老的神经系统中最先遇到麻烦的功能之一。罗彻斯特大学拥有一系列美国国立卫生研究院支持的研究项目，致力于导航和通信的感觉、运动、综合和细胞机制。研究范围从分子和遗传方法到清醒动物的细胞神经生理学到人类感知，并包括强大的翻译和临床元素。这些特点为我们的P-30导航与通信科学中心（CNCS）提供了一个引人注目的框架。在过去的拨款期间，CNCS现在以超出所有预期的稳定状态运行，这主要归功于敬业敬业的教职员工，合作和共享的核心服务，强大的咨询和质量保证流程，以及已被证明对新合作和新研究人员具有吸引力的基础设施和社区。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The most compelling features of daily life include the ability to navigate through our environment and to communicate with each other. These functions are fundamental to survival, but are also among the first to encounter trouble in the diseased or aging nervous system. The University of Rochester holds a set of NIH-supported research programs dedicated to the sensory, motor, integrative, and cellular mechanisms underlying navigation and communication. Research ranges from molecular and genetic approaches to cellular neurophysiology in awake animals to human perception, and includes strong translational and clinical elements. These characteristics provide a compelling framework for our P-30, Center for Navigation and Communication Sciences (CNCS). New this past grant period, the CNCS is now operating at a steady-state that exceeds all expectations, largely due to committed leadership matched by a dedicated and engaged faculty and staff, cooperative and shared Core services, a strong advisory and quality assurance process, and an infrastructure and community that has proven attractive to new collaborations and new investigators. The CNCS allows investigators to efficiently share costly, time-consuming, essential but cumbersome, and innovative research services. The CNCS includes three Cores: 1) a Human Subjects Core to consolidate and coordinate the recruitment, screening, scheduling, and databasing of subjects across projects; 2) a Research Services Core that includes a Histology & Imaging Unit (tissue preparation, image analysis & reconstruction), an Electronic/Mechanical Shop (repair and construction of lab components and devices), an Animal Research Unit (mutant and knockout preparations, husbandry and screening), and a Proteomics Unit (specialized protein analysis); and 3) a Technology and Computation Core, including a Lab Technology Unit (automated lab systems for stimulus and behavioral control, data and analysis) and a Computation Unit to support PC and network operations, software library, web support, and staff training. Some service Units share support with the Department of Neurobiology & Anatomy, the Center for Visual Science (an NEI-P30), and two program projects (an NIA-P01 and an NINDS-P01). The CNCS exploits our inherently collegiate ecology and augments our lab capabilities through outstanding Core personnel and facilities in dedicated space. All Cores and Units operate efficiently and balance the combined goals of providing both needed though sometimes-mundane services as well as novel and innovative solutions that transform into tomorrow's capabilities. This ensures high-quality, efficient, and diverse services to all, in a robust infrastructure that enriches the productivity of our research, promotes collaborations among investigators, attracts new faculty and students to our research mission, facilitates further institutional support, and ultimately contributes to the health of the community and the nation.