# Short-Term Research Training for Optometry Students

> **NIH NIH T35** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY · 2024 · $89,030

## Abstract

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.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10847676
- **Project number:** 2T35EY007139-31
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY
- **Principal Investigator:** Susana T Chung
- **Activity code:** T35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $89,030
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 1994-05-01 → 2029-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10847676

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10847676, Short-Term Research Training for Optometry Students (2T35EY007139-31). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10847676. Licensed CC0.

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