Visual Science Training Grant

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Program Director/Principal Investigator (Last, First, Middle): Zhou, Z. Jimmy Abstract This application proposes to continue an integrative training program in visual science research at Yale University School of Medicine, with a special emphasis on visual neuroscience. The goal of this program is to foster interdisciplinary approaches to visual neuroscience that will interface with molecular genetics and clinical medicine in the areas of development, organization, function, degeneration, and regeneration in the eye and the central visual system. Fourteen faculty preceptors from six basic and clinical departments participate in this multidisciplinary program. These faculty members lead vibrant vision research programs in a vision research community at Yale that has undergone an exciting phase of revitalization and expansion, and that has attracted an increasing number of outstanding graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. The proposed training program offers both depth and breadth. The depth derives from its substantive focus on the neuroscience of the eye and the visual system. The breadth of the program derives from the diversity of approaches, spanning molecular, developmental, systems, cognitive and theoretical neuroscience, as well as from the range of experimental models used in these studies, spanning drosophila, zebrafish, rodents, and primates. Faculty interests range from retinal development and degeneration, retinal physiology and circuits to visual cortical function and visual behavior. Methodologies include cloning; cell culture; immunocytochemistry; in situ hybridization; gene transfection and transgenic technology, electron and two photon microscopy; optogenetics, patch-clamp and multielectrode recording; electroretinograph, optical imaging; biochemistry and molecular analyses; psycho-pharmacology; rodent, monkey and human behavior; in vivo extracellular recording in behaving animals; and fMRI and PET imaging in human subjects. Two predoctoral and two postdoctoral positions are requested. Trainees will be selected from a variety of backgrounds in biological sciences on the basis of their potential for excellence and leadership in research by an Executive Committee. Mentors are Ph.D.s and M.D.s. with NEI and other NIH institute grants or NEI related research foci. Training includes coursework, intensive research apprentice-ship, structured seminar programs, laboratory and departmental presentations of research progress, and instructions on responsible research conduct. PHS 398/2590 (Rev. 06/09) Page Continuation Format Page