Multidisciplinary Investigations in Visual Science

PROJECT SUMMARY The goal of this National Eye Institute (NEI) P30 competitive renewal is to continue to enhance the research activities of NEI-funded investigators at The University of Iowa. This will be achieved by providing a suite of Core Services, performed by skilled technical staff and supervised by experienced NEI-funded faculty members, employing standardized, automated procedures when possible. We have modified the Core Services in this renewal application to continue to provide the most up-to-date state-of-the-art services to meet the evolving needs of NEI-funded faculty at The University of Iowa. The combination of centralization (allowing specialization and concomitant increases in efficiency) and the breadth of services available from the various Cores are expected to continue to provide utility and increased productivity to all vision researchers at The University of Iowa. The University of Iowa NEI P30 program is aimed at supporting three primary service cores: 1) Molecular Imaging Core; 2) Rodent Phenotyping Core; and 3) Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Core. The capabilities of and research activities provided by these cores all require specialized equipment and highly trained staff that would be inefficient and costly to duplicate in every laboratory seeking to employ these techniques.