Vision Sciences Training Grant

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请要求资金继续支持每年五名博士预科生和两名博士后培训生，在系统，细胞和分子水平上进行全校范围的视觉科学培训计划。培训的重点是分析从视网膜到大脑的视觉通路，以及正常和患病眼睛的细胞、分子和遗传方面。39名教员分布在哥伦比亚大学的两个校区：其中32名教员在位于168街和百老汇的健康科学校区的基础和临床科学系，7名教员来自位于116街和百老汇的主校区（Morningside）的四个系。在上一个资助期间，哥伦比亚大学建立了一个新的心智-大脑研究所，有6名研究人员专注于灵长类动物的视觉皮层，在神经学研究所建立了一个新的功能磁共振成像和磁共振光谱设备，并在眼科建立了一个新的临床研究中心。两名新教员成立了一个理论神经科学中心。原来的34位导师中有4位被5位新教员和4位现有教员所取代。第1部分包括13名教员，他们使用神经生理学、心理物理学、计算建模和成像技术，专注于人类和猴子的视觉和动眼肌系统。第2部分的四个教员专注于细胞规范，视网膜轴突引导，以及树突和棘的生物物理学和可塑性。第3部分由22名教师组成，他们研究视紫红质的结构/功能、类视黄质加工和退行性过程，包括黄斑变性、视网膜色素变性、糖尿病性视网膜病变和白内障。导师和学员开展的研究符合NEI国家眼科和视力研究计划的目标，包括视网膜疾病、角膜、晶状体和白内障项目，以及斜视、弱视和视觉处理。受训者将继续通过广告和其他一些强大的和选择性的研究生课程，如医学博士课程，神经生物学和行为学博士课程，以及细胞，生物化学和生物物理研究综合课程录取。通过课程、论文委员会、专题讨论会、研讨会和大纽约视觉俱乐部等活动，预计教师和学员将继续互动，并培养新一代的视觉科学家，他们将进一步阐明视觉系统的信息处理、发展和疾病。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application requests funds to continue to support five predoctoral and two postdoctoral trainees per year, in a university-wide training program in visual science, at the systems, cellular, and molecular levels. Training focuses on analysis of the visual pathways from retina to brain, and cellular, molecular and genetic aspects of the normal and diseased eye. Thirty-nine faculty are distributed on two campuses of Columbia University: Thirty-two of this faculty are in basic and clinical science departments on the Health Sciences Campus, 168th Street and Broadway, and 7 are drawn from four departments from the main (Morningside) campus at 116th and Broadway. During the last funding period, Columbia established a new Mind-Brain Institute with 6 investigators focused on the primate visual cortex, a new fMRI and MR spectroscopy facility in the Neurological Institute, and a new clinical research center within the Department of Ophthalmology. A Center for Theoretical Neuroscience has been initiated by two new faculty. Four of the 34 original mentors have been replaced by 5 new faculty and 4 extant faculty. Section 1 includes 13 faculty focused on the visual and oculomotor systems in humans and monkeys using neurophysiology, psychophysics, computational modeling, and imaging. Four faculty in Section 2 focus on cell specification, retinal axon guidance, and biophysics and plasticity of dendrites and spines. Section 3 comprises 22 faculty studying structure/function of rhodopsin, retinoid processing, and degenerative processes, including macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts. The research carried out by the mentors and trainees matches the goals in NEI's National Plan for Eye and Vision Research for Retinal Diseases, Cornea, and Lens and Cataract programs, as well as the Strabismus, Amblyopia and Visual Processing. Trainees will continue to be recruited by advertisement and via acceptance through a number of other strong and selective graduate programs such as the MD-PhD program, Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, and Integrated Program in Cellular, Biochemical and Biophysical studies. Through activities such as courses, thesis committees, symposia, seminars, and a Greater New York Vision Club, it is expected that faculty and trainees will continue to interact, and produce a new generation of vision scientists who will further elucidate information processing, development, and disease of the visual system.