This application requests continued support at the University of Houston for a Core Center Grant for Vision Research to provide uninterrupted funding of three research service modules: Instrument Design, Computer Programming, and Clinical Research Development (Biostatistics). During the past four years, these heavily used modules have mainly facilitated the research efforts of a Core group of twenty investigators (serving as principal investigators on seventeen NIH-funded grants); in addition, these modules have provided assistance in the research activities of eighteen clinical investigators. Altogether, the research service modules have generated approximately 224 core-supported publications and approximately 146 instances of research collaboration. This Center Grant has been instrumental in attracting ten new investigators and in preparing nine newly funded R01 grants to our Core. Most of our new faculty relied greatly on the Instrument Design and Computer Programming modules for the start up of their research laboratories. Eighteen of the College's clinical faculty have used the Clinical Research Development (Biostatistics) Module during the past four years. This Module was central to numerous clinical studies, including the recently funded proposal for a (R21) planning grant for a multicenter clinical trial of vision training for intermittent exotropia. Currently, this Module is engaged in developing protocols and analyses for a soon-to-be submitted proposal for a planning grant for a multicenter trial of risk factors in high-risk patients for glaucoma. We request continuation of the Core activities basically as they are now, with minor changes: the Instrument Design Module will rely more on an assistant designer's time than the principal designer's, leaving the electronics component unchanged; 0.2 increase in FTE is requested. The Computer Programming Module will include an additional half-time assistant programmer. The Biostatistics Module remains unchanged. The PI's 5% time and the half-time Core Coordinator, now being utilized, will continue but more formally as an Administrative Module primarily to facilitate and coordinate Core services, including research subject acquisition, for Core investigators.
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