Here we propose a Stanford University NEI T32 Vision Science Training Grant. Based on excellence in postdoctoral training among our vision science faculty, our goal in this application is to provide a vision- specific research training program with integrated clinical experience to the talented trainees at Stanford. Specifically, we seek training support for post-doctoral fellows. The 20 primary vision research faculty in the Stanford Vision Training Program includes 14 PhDs and 6 MD/PhDs of all academic ranks. The vision faculty has strengths in diverse areas, including molecular and cellular vision biology, vision encoding and circuitry, development and genetics, in vivo imaging, higher order visual behavior and perception, mechanisms of diseases, and different approaches to the treatment of diseases. There are multiple institutional grants and programs that support the faculty, along with many individual faculty grants. Together, the primary vision faculty is funded by 98 grants totaling over 20 million dollars, of which 28 grants are from the NEI, 50 grants are from the NIH (including NEI), and the rest are from the Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, and various foundations. Three faculty mentors are Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators. Exciting developments for the Stanford Vision Training Program include the recruitment of a significant new cohort of vision research faculty to Stanford, including the new Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, and unparalleled institutional resources committed by the department and by the Stanford University School of Medicine. Formal classroom, clinical and laboratory training under the auspices of carefully crafted training plans, new quarterly and annual vision research symposia, and oversight by both an Executive Committee and External Reviewer(s) will allow this Stanford Vision Training Program to produce future leaders in vision research who are able to tackle the most interesting and important questions and open new horizons at Stanford and beyond.
This T32 Stanford Vision Training Program will fund a premier postdoctoral training program designed to integrate excellence in basic vision research and clinical ophthalmologic training. Our explicit goal is to produce investigators capable of using basic research to answer clinically relevant questions. Program components include rigorous research programs with vision faculty of the highest caliber, new vision research community events, new comprehensive eye and vision courses, and clinical ophthalmologic exposure to facilitate future bench-to-bedside applications of basic vision research.
