COURSE on FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES IN VISION RESEARCH

描述（由申请人提供）：《视觉研究基础问题》课程直接响应美国国家眼科研究所国家计划的建议，“培养高水平的博士预科学员，研究视觉系统和视力威胁疾病和视力障碍”。此外，该课程回应了该计划对在免疫学、分子生物学、遗传学和细胞生物学等基础科学领域培养视觉科学家的持续需求的评估。该课程每两年在8月举行一次，最近一次是在2004年。具体目标是向学生介绍在分子和细胞水平上对视力和视觉障碍的全面研究，并培养联系和合作的经验。为了有机会考虑在视觉研究领域从事调查工作，学生们会遇到25-30位当前该领域的领导者，他们会介绍视觉研究中的主要问题。尽可能强调视觉系统和其他系统研究之间的相似之处。因此，一个由基础科学家和临床医生组成的非常多样化的教师被选择以各种形式向学生介绍这些学科。由此产生的教师和学生之间的互动向学生介绍了一个新的研究人员群体和他们提出的问题。每个学生都把自己的观点带到课堂上，提高了讨论的质量，从其他领域的同学的投入中受益，从他们接触到广泛的教师兴趣中受益。每个班级都成为一个社会群体，在相互激烈的学习经历中建立起亲密的友谊。通过这种经历，学生们将继续为彼此提供见解和联系，就像他们的资深同事几十年来所做的那样。通过接触视觉研究领域及其研究人员，学生们将在视觉系统及其障碍的研究中得到训练和培养。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Fundamental Issues in Vision Research Course contributes specifically and responds directly to the recommendation of the National Plan of the National Eye Institute to "train high-caliber predoctoral trainees to study the visual system and sight-threatening diseases and disorders of vision." In addition, the course responds to the plan's assessment for the continued need to train vision scientists in basic science areas of immunology, molecular biology, genetics, and cell biology. The course is held biennially in August, the most recent session in 2004. The specific aims are to introduce the students to the full range of the study of vision and of visual disorders at the molecular and cellular level and to foster an experience of bonding and collaboration. In order to gain an opportunity to consider careers of investigation in the vision research fields, the students encounter 25-30 of the current leaders in the field, who introduce the major problems in vision research. Parallels between the visual system and studies in other systems are emphasized whenever possible. Accordingly, a very diverse faculty of both basic scientists and clinicians is chosen to introduce the students to the subjects in a variety of formats. The resultant interaction between the faculty and students introduces the students to a new community of researchers and to the questions that they are asking. Each student brings the intensity of their own perspectives to the class and enhances the quality of discussion, benefiting from the input of their classmates from other fields and from their exposure to the broad faculty interests. Each class becomes a social cohort with close friendships forged from a mutual intense learning experience together. Through this experience, the students will continue to feed each other insights and contacts, just as their more senior colleagues have done for decades. Through this exposure to the field of vision research and its investigators, the students are trained and nurtured for a future in the study of the visual system and its disorders.