Support is requested for a training program to five predoctoral and one postdoctoral trainee 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, in both basic science and disease-oriented research. Thirty-five faculties are distributed on two campuses of Columbia University: Twenty-eight of these faculties 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. Faculty mentors are largely drawn from the new Department of Neuroscience and the Department of Ophthalmology. Section 1 (Systems/Computation) includes 14 faculty focused on the visual and oculomotor systems in humans and monkeys using neurophysiology, psychophysics, computational modeling, and imaging. These faculties are in the Departments of Psychology, Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience, with 6 investigators in the Mahoney Center studying the primate visual cortex;they use an fMRI facility in the Neurological Institute, and participate in the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience. Three faculties in Section 2 (Development and Plasticity) focus on cell specification, retinal axon guidance, and biophysics and plasticity of dendrites and cortical circuitry, and are in the departments of Genetics, Pathology and Cell Biology, Neuroscience, and Biological Sciences. Section 3 (Molecular/Genetic Approaches to the Normal and Diseased Eye) is composed of 18 faculty in the Department of Ophthalmology, Biochemistry, Medicine, Pediatrics and Chemistry, who study retinal degeneration, retinoid processing, and the genetics, diagnostics and therapy of retinal disorders, with a focus on macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, and retinopathy of prematurity. The research carried out by the mentors and trainees matches the goals in NEI's long-standing plan for eye and vision research for retinal diseases, cornea, and lens and cataract programs, as well as the strabismus, amblyopia and visual processing. Support is sought for up to three years for predoctoral students who have chosen a lab and project and for one year for an entering postdoctoral trainee. Trainees will be recruited from several selective graduate programs such as the MD-PhD program, Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, and Integrated Program in Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical studies, and by advertisement. Through activities such as courses, thesis committees, symposia, seminars, and a Greater New York Vision Club (Vision), 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 in the visual system.

Public Health Relevance

The goal of the proposed program is to support student and postdoctoral trainees in vision research - to expand their understanding of current basic and clinical issues on the eye and visual pathways, and to provide professional career development. Areas of strength of the program include studies of higher-level influences on visual perception, of development and cellular organization of visual circuitry, and of genetics and cell biology of retinal degeneration. This training will help produce the next generation of scientists who will tackle perturbations of vision at these levels of analysis.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32EY013933-13
Application #
8523870
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZEY1-VSN (01))
Program Officer
Agarwal, Neeraj
Project Start
2001-09-30
Project End
2016-08-31
Budget Start
2013-09-01
Budget End
2014-08-31
Support Year
13
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$235,954
Indirect Cost
$12,563
Name
Columbia University (N.Y.)
Department
Pathology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
621889815
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10032
Sitko, Austen A; Kuwajima, Takaaki; Mason, Carol A (2018) Eye-specific segregation and differential fasciculation of developing retinal ganglion cell axons in the mouse visual pathway. J Comp Neurol 526:1077-1096
Lee, Melissa A; Sitko, Austen A; Khalid, Sania et al. (2018) Spatiotemporal distribution of glia in and around the developing mouse optic tract. J Comp Neurol :
Kohn, Jessica R; Heath, Sarah L; Behnia, Rudy (2018) Eyes Matched to the Prize: The State of Matched Filters in Insect Visual Circuits. Front Neural Circuits 12:26
Semework, Mulugeta; Steenrod, Sara C; Goldberg, Michael E (2018) A spatial memory signal shows that the parietal cortex has access to a craniotopic representation of space. Elife 7:
Zhang, Wujie; Falkner, Annegret L; Krishna, B Suresh et al. (2017) Coupling between One-Dimensional Networks Reconciles Conflicting Dynamics in LIP and Reveals Its Recurrent Circuitry. Neuron 93:221-234
Foley, Nicholas C; Kelly, Simon P; Mhatre, Himanshu et al. (2017) Parietal neurons encode expected gains in instrumental information. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:E3315-E3323
Kang, Yul H R; Petzschner, Frederike H; Wolpert, Daniel M et al. (2017) Piercing of Consciousness as a Threshold-Crossing Operation. Curr Biol 27:2285-2295.e6
Wang, Qing; Marcucci, Florencia; Cerullo, Isadora et al. (2016) Ipsilateral and Contralateral Retinal Ganglion Cells Express Distinct Genes during Decussation at the Optic Chiasm. eNeuro 3:
Wert, Katherine J; Mahajan, Vinit B; Zhang, Lijuan et al. (2016) Neuroretinal hypoxic signaling in a new preclinical murine model for proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Signal Transduct Target Ther 1:
Quirin, Sean; Vladimirov, Nikita; Yang, Chao-Tsung et al. (2016) Calcium imaging of neural circuits with extended depth-of-field light-sheet microscopy. Opt Lett 41:855-8

Showing the most recent 10 out of 62 publications