P30-Core Grant for Vision Research Core A

Summary SBI Core A The Structural Biology and Imaging (SBI) Core enhances vision research of AVRC members by assisting them in determining the relationship between normal and abnormal tissue structure in eye diseases, disease models and after experimental treatments. This SBI Core provides facilities and services for AVRC members to determine structural changes and how they relate to function through state of the art histology, electron microscopy, confocal scanning laser microscopy and experimental animal surgery imaging. The SBI Core also supports obtaining structural data and interpretation of this data for new initiatives of AVRC members with an emphasis on retinal function, retinal degeneration/injury, RPE morphometry, ocular oncology, and gene/drug delivery. The SBI Core enables localization of proteins involved with control of retinal function in health and disease; imaging of tissue changes in retinal and optic nerve degenerations; correlation of RPE morphometric changes with genotype and function; development of imaging techniques for primary and metastatic ocular tumors, including tissue correlations with MRI contrast agents and tele-imaging; and studying ocular tissue changes relative to gene and drug delivery to the posterior ocular compartment. This core facilities capture and porting of high resolution large images from devices to other Core modules. This Core helps unskilled or neophyte NEI R01 awardees to understand and use university cores for super-resolution microscopy approaches. This Core supports image capture and processing that would normally be beyond the capabilities that could be proposed under a normal R01 mechanism.