Core Support for Hearing Research

描述(由申请者提供)：三个研究核心建议用于 促进对听力和耳聋的跨学科研究 马萨诸塞州眼耳医院。研究中心由19个人组成 NIDCD资助的主要调查人员，都隶属于伊顿-皮博迪 实验室(EPL)。他们包括临床医生和基础科学家，以及学术界 与哈佛医学院和麻省理工学院的研究生项目和系的联系。这个 研究基地涵盖广泛的基础和应用研究项目， 从体外系统到人类，从外周机械到皮质处理 患者，从动物模型到神经网络。 EPL研究小组有着长期卓有成效的合作历史，其基础是 通过以下系统共享设备、资源和科学专门知识 由日落计划项目拨款支持的研究核心。海流 提案建立在现有核心结构和人员的基础上，以维持 现有的并促进进一步的跨学科研究工作 听力和耳聋。每个核心都将支持经验丰富的 1)人员配备、储备、维护和升级现有的共享研究 设施；2)培训用户和/或提供这些方面的专家技术服务 设施；以及3)提供必要的专业知识以加强研究 生产力和促进不同研究方法的融合 研究中心所代表的众多学科。 三个核心和每个核心的主要目标包括1)工程核心，以 设计、建造和维护数据采集系统、定制声学设备、 刺激产生系统，一种分布式多平台系统，用于 将计算基础设施和局域网连接在一起 2)一个外科/组织学核心，以维护现有的共享设施并提供协助 动物外科和组织学准备方面的研究团队 电子显微镜；以及3)成像核心，以支持日益增长的 用于数字图像获取和分析的中心调查人员，包括 共聚焦显微镜，计算机辅助解剖重建，自动化 形态计量学、3-D重建/渲染和功能成像分析 数据。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Three Research Cores are proposed to facilitate interdisciplinary research into hearing and deafness at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI). The Research Center comprises 19 NIDCD-funded principal investigators, all affiliated with the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory (EPL). They include clinicians and basic scientists, with academic ties to graduate programs and departments at Harvard Medical School and MIT. The Research Base covers a wide range of basic and applied research projects from peripheral mechanics to cortical processing, from in vitro systems to human patients, from animal models to neural nets. The EPL research group has a long history of fruitful collaboration based on sharing of equipment, resources and scientific expertise via a system of research cores supported by a sunsetting program project grant. The current proposal builds on the present core structure and personnel to maintain existing, and facilitate further, interdisciplinary research efforts into hearing and deafness. Each of the Cores will support highly experienced personnel to 1) staff, stock, maintain and upgrade existing shared research facilities; 2) train users and/or render expert technical services in these facilities; and 3) provide the necessary expertise to enhance research productivity and facilitate the fusion of different research approaches across the many disciplines represented in the Research Center. The three Cores and the major aims of each include 1) an Engineering Core to design, build and maintain data-acquisition systems, custom acoustical devices, stimulus generation systems, a distributed multi-platform system for computational infrastructure and the local area network to link it all together 2) a Surgery/Histology Core to maintain existing shared facilities and assist research teams in animal surgery and histological preparation for both light and electron microscopy; and 3) an Imaging Core to support the growing needs of Center investigators for digital image acquisition and analysis, including confocal microscopy, computer-aided anatomical reconstruction, automation of morphometry, 3-D reconstruction/rendering, and analysis of functional imaging data.