OVERALL ABSTRACT The vision science community at UC Berkeley has a long and distinguished history, having contributed manyseminal discoveries in the fields of visual system development, physiology, psychophysics, and pathology over the past 50 years. UC Berkeley vision scientists come from diverse academic disciplines, increasing our understanding of vision at many different levels. Our group consists of 18 CORE investigators and more than 20 other labs studying vision, ranging in interests from molecular mechanisms of retinal physiology and pathology to human visual perception. We request continued support for our CORE grant to ensure further success in vision research through shared resources and services. We seek funding for three modules which will support current faculty and attract new faculty to investigate the visual system. The modules are: (1) Gene Delivery (Xiaohua Gong & John Flannery, co-directors), designed to provide molecular biology expertise and support in the use of viral vectors for delivering genes into tissues of the visual system and for creating transgenic animal models of ocular disease. (2) Microscopic Imaging (Maria Feller and Austin Roorda, co-directors), which will apply and develop advanced imaging methods for visualizing cells in both animal and human eyes ? designing, building, and facilitating the use of customized microscopes in individual labs and the Microscopic Imaging Center, and (3) Software Development (Marty Banks & Michael Silver, co- directors), which will provide custom software solutions for shared use by visual system investigators using psychophysical and physiological methods. UC Berkeley has demonstrated its strong commitment with 5 new faculty whose research focus is on vision, with 5 more Vision Science hires planned for the next several years. The UC Berkeley central administration, and the academic centers for Vision Science on campus (Departments of Molecular & Cell Biology, Optometry, Psychology, and the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute) have all demonstrated their continued dedication to Vision Science by committing resources equivalent to $400,000 over the next 5 years to support the Vision Science CORE.
While the landscape of Vision Science continues to change at UC Berkeley, our investigators and their laboratories have consistently been at the forefront of many vision science fields, including corneal biology, ocular microbiology and immunology, myopia research, gene therapy for retinal degeneration, retinal circuit development and electrophysiology, optopharmacological tools for vision restoration, visual cortical circuits and higher order visual processing, and visual psychophysics. Despite the diversity of their research interests, many of our Vision Science investigators share common needs for 1) manipulating genes in the eye and brain, 2) visualizing structures and functions of the vision system, and 3) customized computer programs for acquiring and analyzing data. These widespread needs have driven our selection of 3 Resource/Service Cores (Gene Delivery, Microscopic Imaging, and Software Development, which were chosen for their high impact and very widespread use, both by Core-eligible investigators (i.e. with NEI R01 grants) and by other investigators on campus. Each Resource/Service Core focuses on meeting pressing needs that are shared by many participating investigators; but unavailable from other campus facilities.
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