Short-Term Research Training For Optometry Students

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T35 EY013937: Short-term Research Training for Optometry Students Project summary/abstract Fourteen vision scientists at Indiana University seek to provide short-term research training to students in the School of Optometry. The long-term objective is to develop in these students an abiding interest in research that will motivate them to pursue M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Vision Science, and ultimately lead to careers in health-related vision research. Students are mentored by vision scientists with active research programs. The research funding currently supporting these laboratories includes NEI funding through ten R01s, an R41, an R44 and a P30 core grant, plus funds from the Indiana State Department of Health and multiple other grants from industry and foundations. Support is requested for seven short-term trainees for three months of summer research. Students with an undergraduate degree enter the program usually at the end of their first year in optometry school. The potential areas of training include: Optics (including both anterior segment optics and retinal imaging), Biology (including genetics of the anterior segment, molecular biology of the RPE and corneal physiology), Disease (including ocular surface defects, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma and oculomotor disorders), and Vision (including the impact of optical aberrations on visual performance, binocular vision and visual development in infancy and early childhood). Three different graduate level courses will expose trainees to a) Epidemiology, research design and basic statistics as part of the optometry curriculum during the spring prior to entering the short-term training program b) Ethical Issues in Scientific Research during the summer training, and c) Critical Evaluation of the Research Literature during the summer training. The trainees also organize an afternoon of research presentations made by the local vision science community (approximately 40 presentations), which provides them with additional experience with local research opportunities and the presentation of research findings to the community. The trainees are encouraged to continue following their research interest after their summer training, by (i) continuing their research in their mentor's lab and (ii) attending weekly seminars by in-house faculty, graduate students and visiting scholars, and by (iii) attending scientific meetings at which they present their research under the guidance of their mentors. Trainees are also encouraged through a special degree program to include their data and analysis in a thesis for an M.S. degree in Vision Science, which by additional efforts during the second through fourth year of the OD program they can complete without additional costs.