Research on normal and abnormal mechanisms of vision

描述（由申请人提供）：我们提议继续一个广泛的，跨学科的视力培训计划，现在是它的第35个年头。该项目包括来自4所学院8个系的27名培训师，涵盖多个领域：光导（生物物理学、分子生物学）；视网膜（电路、计算、神经化学、发育遗传学）；眼睛（白内障、近视、流泪）；中枢通路（生理学、计算）；高级过程（心理物理学、认知神经科学、计算）；视网膜疾病和新的基因疗法。视觉训练计划的目的是促进对视觉科学感兴趣的优秀研究生的智力发展，使他们最终成为所选学科的领导者。博士预科生将被生物医学研究生集中办公室选中，并加入一个特别的“研究生小组”，主要是神经科学、生物工程和心理学。在宾大紧凑的校园里，研究生教育是跨部门和学院组织的，以促进多学科培训和合作研究。学生在头两年接受广泛的培训，并特别被视觉研究所吸引：(1)正式讲座和实验室培训，(2)每周午餐研讨会，由校内和外部演讲者混合进行研究讲座，(3)在三个不同的实验室进行研究轮转（每个实验室都有公开演讲），(4)每年的研究静修，有学生讲座和学者驻校计划。在这一点上，所有学生都接触到现代研究方法（膜片钳，分子生物学，遗传学，计算等）。相关的研究生小组每年总共招收约260名学生，其中约有40名学生在视觉实验室轮转。目前，大约有35人在视力实验室做论文，其中31人有资格获得视力培训计划的支持。在过去的10年里，视力培训项目已经或正在培训21名博士/医学博士或博士。大多数人在优秀的实验室继续接受培训，许多人随后在著名的研究机构任职。通过我们的毕业生，我们的培训计划的影响已经广泛传播，大大增加了我们对健康和疾病视力的理解。近期的计划包括继续我们优秀的跨校园活动项目，并扩大各种活动，包括一个新的广泛的视觉科学课程。基于对视觉的持续兴趣和我们教师的显着增长，我们要求每年继续支持6名博士预科生。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to continue a broad, interdisciplinary Vision Training Program now in its 35th year. The program includes 27 trainers in 8 departments across 4 schools and spans many areas: photo transduction (biophysics, molecular biology); retina (circuitry, computation, neurochemistry developmental genetics); eye (cataract, myopia, tears); central pathways (physiology, computation); higher processes (psychophysics, cognitive neuroscience, computation); retinal diseases and new genetic therapeutics. The purpose the Vision Training Program is to promote intellectual development of outstanding graduate students interested in the visual sciences so that they may ultimately become leaders in their chosen disciplines. Predoctoral students are selected for their excellence by a centralized office of Biomedical Graduate Studies and join a particular "graduate group", mainly Neuroscience, Bioengineering and Psychology. On Penn's compact campus, graduate education is organized across departments and schools in order to foster multidisciplinary training and collaborative research. Students are trained broadly during their first two years and are attracted specifically to vision research by: (1) formal lectures and laboratory training, (2) weekly lunchtime seminars with research talks by a mix of intramural and external speakers, (3) research rotations in three different laboratories (each followed by a public talk), (4) an annual research retreat with student talks and scholar in residence program. At this point, all students are exposed to modern research methods (patch clamp, molecular biology, genetics, computation, etc...). Collectively, the relevant graduate groups admit about 260 students annually, and of these, about 40 rotate through vision labs. Currently, about 35 are doing their theses in vision labs and of these, 31 are eligible for support by the Vision Training Program. In the past 10 years, the Vision Training Program has trained or is training 21 PhD/MD or PhDs. Most have continued training in excellent labs and many have subsequently assumed positions at prominent research institutions. Through our graduates, the impact of our training program has been widespread, adding significantly to our understanding of vision in health and disease. Plans for the immediate future include continuing with our excellent active across campus program and expand the various activities including a new broad course in vision science. Based on continued interest in vision and significant growth of our faculty, we request continued support for 6 predoctoral students per year.