A Vision Research Infrastructure Development Grant to support vision research within the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of California, Irvine is proposed to provide funding of shared equipment and resources and to promote greater collaboration between vision scientists. Recent growth within the Department has brought together cellular and molecular biologists, immunologists, virologists and engineers that share an interest in studying vision related disease mechanisms. The goals of this proposal are two fold: (1) To bring commonly used technologies together within a shared environment to provide a more efficient mechanism for supporting existing equipment and expertise. (2) To bring together individual investigators from diverse disciplines to provide an environment for collaborative multidisciplinary research that maximally utilizes the individual capabilities of the investigators within the Department of Ophthalmology. In order to achieve these goals we have identified two key functions, (1) Cell Culture;and 2) Microscopic Imaging, that not only need current support but will also greatly expand our abilities to answer vision related questions in the future. We therefore propose to establish two Core Facilities. First, the Cell Culture Facility will be established to a) maintain shared tissue culture equipment and services, b) provide routine cell culture services, c) cell banking, d) mycoplasma and endotoxin monitoring, and e) Vi-CELL(tm) Viability Analyzing. Secondly, the Microscopy Imaging Facility that will provide state-of-the-art services in a) light and fluorescent microscopy, b) confocal laser scanning microscopy, c) multiphoton confocal microscopy and time lapse imaging, d) in vivo confocal microscopy and e) quantitative morphometry and digital image analysis. While the immediate goal of this Infrastructure Development Grant is to establish more centralized facilities to save time, energy and resources, we believe that establishing these facilities will greatly expand the individual capabilities of each investigator through enhanced collaboration with other investigators from different disciplines and by providing easier access to state-of-the-art equipment and the expertise needed to fully use these new technologies.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Resource-Related Research Projects (R24)
Project #
5R24EY016663-05
Application #
7626278
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZEY1-VSN (03))
Program Officer
Liberman, Ellen S
Project Start
2005-06-01
Project End
2011-05-31
Budget Start
2009-06-01
Budget End
2011-05-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$227,469
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Irvine
Department
Ophthalmology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
046705849
City
Irvine
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
92697
Jester, James V; Morishige, Naoyuki; BenMohamed, Lbachir et al. (2016) Confocal Microscopic Analysis of a Rabbit Eye Model of High-Incidence Recurrent Herpes Stromal Keratitis. Cornea 35:81-8
Quantock, Andrew J; Winkler, Moritz; Parfitt, Geraint J et al. (2015) From nano to macro: studying the hierarchical structure of the corneal extracellular matrix. Exp Eye Res 133:81-99
Winkler, Moritz; Simon, Melinda G; Vu, Timothy et al. (2014) A microfabricated, optically accessible device to study the effects of mechanical cues on collagen fiber organization. Biomed Microdevices 16:255-67
Chen, Ying; Thompson, David C; Koppaka, Vindhya et al. (2013) Ocular aldehyde dehydrogenases: protection against ultraviolet damage and maintenance of transparency for vision. Prog Retin Eye Res 33:28-39
Jester, James V; Brown, Donald; Pappa, Aglaia et al. (2012) Myofibroblast differentiation modulates keratocyte crystallin protein expression, concentration, and cellular light scattering. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 53:770-8
Jester, James V; Nien, Chyong Jy; Vasiliou, Vasilis et al. (2012) Quiescent keratocytes fail to repair MMC induced DNA damage leading to the long-term inhibition of myofibroblast differentiation and wound healing. Mol Vis 18:1828-39
Nien, Chyong Jy; Massei, Salina; Lin, Gloria et al. (2011) Effects of age and dysfunction on human meibomian glands. Arch Ophthalmol 129:462-9
Simpson, Jennifer L; Nien, Chyong Jy; Flynn, Kevin J et al. (2011) Evaluation of topical cysteamine therapy in the CTNS(-/-) knockout mouse using in vivo confocal microscopy. Mol Vis 17:2649-54
Winkler, Moritz; Chai, Dongyul; Kriling, Shelsea et al. (2011) Nonlinear optical macroscopic assessment of 3-D corneal collagen organization and axial biomechanics. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52:8818-27
Chai, Dongyul; Gaster, Ronald N; Roizenblatt, Roberto et al. (2011) Quantitative assessment of UVA-riboflavin corneal cross-linking using nonlinear optical microscopy. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 52:4231-8

Showing the most recent 10 out of 45 publications