Core Grant for Vision Research

描述（由申请人提供）：视觉研究已被确定为德克萨斯大学休斯顿分校的投资和发展领域。因此，大量的资源、人员和实验室空间都被投入到视觉研究联盟中，这是一个跨越部门界限的教师团体。视力研究联盟目前拥有12个合格的NEI资助，另外还有两个用于临床研究的NEI U10奖。在上一个资助期，我们招募了9名新教员，去年招募了8名。其中两人已经获得了NEI资助，随着其他新教员建立他们的研究项目，预计NEI资金将大幅增长。吸引这些新员工的部分原因是视力核心基金支持的优秀设备，包括一种新的共聚焦显微镜。总的来说，视觉研究联盟现在由来自医学院、公共卫生学院和UT M.D.安德森癌症中心的31位视觉科学家组成，他们在上一个资助期共发表了144篇论文。视力研究联盟的成员每年获得约420万美元（直接费用）的研究经费。在2002/03年度，视觉研究联盟获得了近400万美元的机构支持，用于增加教师和设备。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Vision Research has been identified as an area for investment and development at the University of Texas in Houston. Thus, significant resources, personnel and laboratory space have been committed to the Vision Research Consortium, a faculty group which crosses departmental lines. The Vision Research Consortium currently holds 12 qualifying NEI grants with two additional NEI U10 awards for clinical research. In the last grant period, we recruited 9 new faculty members, 8 in the last year. Two already hold NEI grants and significant growth in NEI funding is anticipated as the other new faculty members establish their research programs. These new recruits were attracted, in part, by the outstanding facilities supported by the Vision Core Grant, including a new confocal microscope. In total, the Vision Research Consortium now consists of 31 vision scientists from the Medical School, the School of Public Health and the UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center Together, they published 144 papers in the last grant period. The members of the Vision Research Consortium receive approximately $4.2 million (direct costs) of research funds annually. In 2002/03, the Vision Research Consortium received almost $4 million of institutional support for new faculty and equipment. The Vision Research Consortium has significant strength in the areas of Visual Neuroscience, Molecular Genetics, Visual System Development, Multi-Center Clinical Trials and Clinical Research. Support is requested for 5 modules which reflect the breadth of these interests: a Biostatistics Module, an Imaging Module, a Tissue Culture Module, a Computer Software and Hardware Support Module and a Gene Microarray Module. These will provide research opportunities not available to individual faculty members. Core support will encourage interdepartmental collaboration, especially between basic and clinical scientists, and support pilot projects leading to new research programs. With the continued support of the Vision Core Grant, a further period of growth and innovative research is expected for the Vision Research Consortium.