EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. The proposed training grant will be used to support four predoctoral students and two postdoctoral scientists in a university-widetraining program in visual science spanningthe systems, cellular, and molecular levels. Training will focus on analysis of the visual pathwaysfrom eye to brain, and cellular, molecular and genetic aspects of the normal and diseased eye. Thirty-three faculty are distributed on two campuses of Columbia University: 26 of these faculty 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. Columbia has established a new Mind-Brain Institute with 7 investigators focused on the primate visual cortex, a new fMRI and MR spectroscopy facility in the Neurological Institute, and a new clinical research center within the Department of Ophthalmology. The influx of senior and junior faculty in these areas, and extant collaborations between faculty across the 3 sections, make the time ripe to mount a training effort in the Visual sciences. Despite the existing focus on the eye and visual system, and numerous training grants in place on the campuses, Columbia has no training grant specifically focused on the Visual Sciences. Section 1 includes 10 faculty focused on the visual and oculomotor systems in humans and monkeys using neurophysiology, human psychophysics,computational modeling, and imaging. Three faculty in Section 2 focus on cell specification in the eye, axon guidance, and biophysics and plasticity of dendrites and spines. Section 3 comprises 20 faculty studying structure/function of rhodopsin, mitochondrial function, retinoid processing, and degenerative processes, including macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa, diabetic retinopathy, and cataracts. The research carried out by these investigators matches the goals in NEFs Vision Research Plan (Report of the National Advisory Eye council) for 1999-2003, in Retinal Diseases, and Lens and Cataract programs, as well as the Strabismus, Amblyopia and Visual Processing program. Students will be recruited by advertisement, and will enter graduate school via acceptance through a number of other strong and selective programs such as the MD-PhD, Doctoral Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, and the Integrated Program in Cellular, Biochemical and Biophysical studies. Through training activities such as courses, thesis committees, yearly symposia, seminars, journal clubs and a Greater New York Vision Club, it is hoped that faculty and trainees will interact in new and fruitful ways, and produce new generations of vision scientists. PERFORMANCE SITE ========================================Section End===========================================
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