Research on normal and abnormal mechanisms of vision

描述(由申请者提供)：我们建议继续一个广泛的、跨学科的视力培训计划，目前已进入第35个年头。该项目包括4所学校8个系的27名培训员，涵盖多个领域：光转导(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、泪水)；中枢通路(生理学、计算)；高等过程(心理物理学、认知神经科学、计算)；视网膜疾病和新的遗传疗法。视觉培训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。生物医学研究生院根据他们的优秀表现挑选博士前学生，并加入一个特别的“研究生群体”，主要是神经科学、生物工程和心理学。在宾夕法尼亚大学紧凑的校园里，研究生教育是跨部门和跨学校组织的，以促进多学科培训和合作研究。学生在头两年接受了广泛的培训，并通过以下方式特别受到视觉研究的吸引：(1)正式讲座和实验室培训，(2)每周午餐时间研讨会，由校内和外部演讲者进行研究演讲，(3)在三个不同的实验室轮流进行研究(每个实验室随后进行一次公开演讲)，(4)与学生演讲和学者常驻计划的年度研究务虚会。在这一点上，所有的学生都接触到了现代的研究方法(膜片钳、分子生物学、遗传学、计算等)。相关的研究生团体每年总共招收约260名学生，其中约40人在视觉实验室轮换。目前，约有35人在VISION实验室完成论文，其中31人有资格获得VISION培训计划的支持。在过去的10年里，视力培训计划已经或正在培训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，我们的培训计划产生了广泛的影响，极大地增加了我们对健康和疾病方面的视觉的了解。近期的计划包括继续我们优秀的跨校园活动计划，并扩大各种活动，包括一门新的视觉科学广泛课程。基于对视觉的持续兴趣和我们教师的显著增长，我们请求继续支持每年6名博士前学生。

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.