Research facility renovation will enhance the research mission of the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute (Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins University). Renovation of two existing areas will provide more effective utilization to improve and expand present and planned research activities. First, a clinical research center will be produced by renovation of 1/2 floor of a former dormitory building, changing 15 individual bedrooms into flexible clinical research and data interaction space, meeting rooms, and a biostatistical core facility. High speed computer network connections will be provided to link this research facility to collaborators within and outside Hopkins Information Systems. This facility will house existing and newly funded programs for research in aging, preventive ophthalmology, and HIV/AIDS research, and a department biostatistical core. Second, the 40-year-old animal quarters and animal surgical suite will be reconfigured to allow new research, expand animal housing, and eliminate some crippling malfunctions. Outdated and non-functional equipment and space will be replaced to generate three animal operating rooms, an ocular imaging facility, modern lighting and computer controls. The animal quarters serves 15 Wilmer research groups and is a fully functional animal care facility for specialized vision research, a component of the Johns Hopkins Comparative Medicine Department. The renovation will enhance core infrastructure for Wilmer's research, whose budget increased by 35 percent over the past five years without major facility renovation. There are presently over 70 million blind persons worldwide, with one million of these estimated to live in the United States of America. The mission of the Wilmer Institute is to promote better vision through patient care, teaching and research into blinding conditions. The research to be carried out in the facilities described here, with the specific funded programs now ongoing, are directed at those high priority questions described in Vision Research: A National Plan, the publication of the National Eye Institute that details the areas most in need of active investigation.
