This is a revised application for a training program focused on translational vision science from an established group of vision scientists. We request funds for six predoctoral students with a training focus in translational vision science to reflect the current strengths of the vision faculty as well as current NEI research priorities. Thi is an exciting time to pursue a career in vision research, as molecular biology and imaging advances have allowed visual outcomes to be monitored in real time. Our vision community has become increasingly focused on translational research with well-known senior faculty who are highly respected investigators in vision research as well as younger investigators clearly on a trajectory for long term success. The training faculty consists of a core group of 6 NEI funded vision scientists and an additional 10 vision scientists who have actively funded research programs in translational vision research. With the arrival of our new chairperson in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Neurosciences, we have greatly increased the collaborations between vision scientists at the University of Minnesota and the clinical faculty in the medical school. Several key elements of our training program in Translational Vision Research include a course designed for trainees, Basic and Clinical Vision Sciences, co-taught by the training faculty in this proposal, and an annual Vision Symposium, where nationally known and in-house experts in vision science present their most recent research along with our trainees and faculty. Trainees will come from one of 4 programs: the Graduate Programs in Neuroscience; Molecular, Cellular, Developmental Biology and Genetics; Psychology; Biomedical Engineering, or Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology. Trainees will be eligible for support once they have completed their first year of graduate school and have begun focused research under the mentorship of a grant preceptor, culminating in their thesis research. They will earn a Ph.D. or an M.D./Ph.D. and will be able to receive support from two to a maximum of four years. The diverse research interests of the vision scientists at the University of Minnesota, and the broad-based and collaborative nature in which they study the visual system - from molecular biology to visual perception - makes this an excellent environment for vision research with translatable components. Each trainer directs a successful research program and has demonstrated commitment to teaching and training. In addition, all trainees will be connected to a practicing Ophthalmologist in their research area, as well as expected to attend related grand rounds. An impressive array of scientific and institutional resources is available to the trainees, but their choice of vision research laboratories will be greatly facilitated by access to support from this training grant. As we move toward increasingly collaborative research between our basic and clinically trained faculty members, we believe this approach will maximize our ability to prepare vision scientists with a multi-disciplinary education needed to meet the audacious goals of the NEI - focused on preventing, treating, and rehabilitating blinding eye disease.
Visual impairment affects over 4 million Americans over the age of 40, with a direct cost of over $139 billion dollars per year. The average age of Americans is increasing, resulting in significantly increased numbers of individuals with visual impairment and blindness, producing a critical need to specifically train the next generation of vision scientists to work in areas of translational vision science. We need to move our discoveries in the laboratory to clinical treatments and rehabilitation strategies, and scientists need to be armed with an understanding of the biology and pathology of vision disorders in order to be able to develop therapies and potential cures to blinding or visually limiting diseases. As faculty with significant translationa components to our work, we are well positioned to train these future translational vision scientists.
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