Short-Term Research Training for Optometry Students

PROJECT SUMMARY Support is requested for 12 optometry (OD) students per year to participate in short-term training in vision research during the summer following successful completion of their first year. The training will be conducted by established vision science and clinical science researchers in the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science. The training program is designed to attract talented students to careers involving clinical and/or translational research. Training will be provided within the laboratories of 26 mentors in the School, where currently 28 pre-doctoral Vision Science students and 21 postdoctoral fellows are involved in eye and vision-related research. The Vision Science PhD graduate program is interdisciplinary, in existence for nearly 80 years, with the majority of its graduates remaining actively engaged in research. Training is broad, encompassing many disciplines among which are neuroscience, computational modeling, psychology, molecular and cell biology, neurophysiology, immunology and infectious diseases, with both basic science and clinical translational emphases. By serving as hosts for T35 trainees, the Vision Science research community provide ideal role models for trainees in line with the program goal of fostering interest in clinician scientist careers. A wide range of basic science, as well as clinical research projects are on- going in the laboratories of the mentors and open to trainees. To-date, this short-term training program has provided for many clinicians a conduit to the Vision Science PhD program, which has long been supported by a T32 Training Program grant. Students attending Optometry schools from across the country are targets of our recruitment efforts aimed at attracting a diverse pool of talented health professional students to our program, with outreach to individual schools and to pre-Optometry career education programs, e.g., Opto-camp, supplemented by web-based and social media promotion. A recently added, zoom-based, research career-focused event will also be made generally accessible, i.e., beyond the trainee cohort, to further support the program's long-term goal of encouraging OD students to pursue advanced research training and/or maintain involvement in research beyond their professional training.