Core Grant in Vision Research

描述(由申请人提供)：范德比尔特视力研究中心(VVRC)横跨文理学院、皮博迪教育学院、工程学院和医学院，要求继续支持五个模块。(1)动物护理单元为非人类灵长类动物和其他大型动物提供专门的增菌、外科支持和兽医护理，并提供小鼠视网膜电流图表型鉴定。(2)计算机模块提供硬件安装和维护、可视化显示和实时数据采集和分析的软件开发、网页维护以及为期刊、海报和网页制作插图。(3)图像处理模块帮助获取和分析脑功能成像、光学成像、共焦显微镜和标准显微镜等成像数据。(4)基因和蛋白质分析模块提供及时和经济的基因微阵列、蛋白质质谱仪和组织病理学服务。(5)车间模块负责维修、设计和制造专业的光学、机械和电子仪器。包括行政支助，以确保VVRC研究和培训任务继续顺利和稳定地运作。模块由NEI资助的调查人员指导，拥有才华横溢且经验丰富的工作人员，并提供否则无法获得或将昂贵得令人望而却步或速度缓慢的服务。在上一次赠款期间，三名以上的调查人员适度或广泛地使用了每个模块。VVRC研究人员制作了数百份出版物，为基础和临床视觉科学做出了根本性贡献。这项核心拨款增加了范德比尔特园区内基础和临床视力研究人员之间的合作以及与其他机构的合作。核心资助提高了我们招募世界级视觉研究人员的能力，从而在范德比尔特大学开展了由NEI赞助的广泛研究。VVRC研究人员的高水平表现依赖于新的核心拨款支持，这与范德比尔特大学在生物医学研究和培训方面的校园倡议相结合。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Vanderbilt Vision Research Center (VVRC) spanning the College of Arts & Science, Peabody College of Education, School of Engineering and School of Medicine requests continued support for five modules. (1) The Animal Care Module provides specialized enrichment, surgical support and veterinary care of nonhuman primates and other large animals and murine electroretinogram phenotyping. (2) The Computer Module provides hardware installation and maintenance, software development for visual displays and real-time data acquisition and analysis, webpage maintenance and production of illustrations for journals, posters and web pages. (3) The Image Processing Module aids acquisition and analysis of functional brain imaging, optical imaging, confocal and standard microscopy and other imaging data. (4) The Gene & Protein Analysis Module provides timely and economical access to gene microarray, protein mass spectrometry and histopathology services. (5) The Shop Module repairs, designs and fabricates specialized optical, mechanical and electronic instruments. Administrative support is included to ensure continued smooth and stable operation of the VVRC research and training missions. Modules are directed by investigators with NEI funding, have talented and experienced staff and provide services that are otherwise not available or would be prohibitively expensive or slow. During the last grant period, each module was used moderately or extensively by more than three investigators. VVRC investigators produced several hundred publications that made fundamental contributions to basic and clinical visual science. This Core grant has increased collaborations between basic and clinical vision researchers across the Vanderbilt campus and with other institutions. The Core grant has improved our ability to recruit world-class vision researchers resulting in extensive NEI-sponsored research at Vanderbilt. The high level of performance of VVRC investigators, which depends on renewed Core grant support, synergizes with campus-wide initiatives in biomedical research and training at Vanderbilt.