Vision Research Training Program (VRTP)

Program Description
The University of Michigan has a long tradition of excellence in vision research and in training vision scientists. Our NIH-funded Vision Research Training Program (VRTP) provides financial support and training for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who seek careers in vision science.

What Does the Program Provide?
Those selected by the VRTP will work with outstanding scientists in vision research. Trainees will benefit from Michigan’s multidisciplinary research environment and diverse range of projects available.

The VRTP provides support (stipend, tuition, health insurance) to trainees who undertake their research in the laboratory of a member of the Training Faculty. The VRTP also supports travel to the annual meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology.

How to Apply
Graduate Students must first be admitted into the Program in Biomedical Sciences, the Molecular Epidemiology Program, or the Neuroscience Program at the University of Michigan, and then accepted into the laboratory of one of the Training Faculty.  Students should apply for VRTP support in the spring of their second year.  VRTP-funding begins after a graduate student passes prelims and achieves candidacy for the Ph.D. 

Candidates for postdoctoral positions in the VRTP should directly contact a member of the Training Faculty.  Candidates must be citizens or non-citizen nationals of the United States .

VRTP Faculty

Jonathan Demb, Ph.D.	Visual information processing
Victor Elner, M.D., Ph.D.	Molecular targets of retinal inflammation and degeneration
Philip Gage, Ph.D.	Genetics of eye development
Thomas Glaser, M.D., Ph.D.	Developmental genetics
Daniel Goldman, Ph.D.	Retinal regeneration
John Heckenlively, M.D.	Molecular identification of hereditary disease processes; autoimmune retinopathies; mouse models of eye diseases; phenotype-genotype correlations
Peter Hitchcock, Ph.D.	Neuronal development, injury and regeneration in the retina
Bret Hughes, Ph.D.	Ion channels in the retinal pigment epithelium
Alon Kahana, M.D., Ph.D.	The biology and developmental genetics of extraocular muscles and neural crest-derived stem cells in the orbit and their importance in orbital cancer, craniofacial syndromes, congenital eye disorders and thyroid-related eye disease.
Hemant Khanna, Ph.D.	Protein trafficking in photoreceptors in transport-related retinal dystrophy
William King, Ph.D.	Eye movement disorders
Donald Puro, M.D., Ph.D.	Retinovascular physiology and pathobiology
Pamela Raymond, Ph.D.	Developmental neurobiology
Julia Richards, Ph.D.	Molecular genetics of glaucoma
Roni Shtein, MD	Clinical patient-oriented research on high risk cornea transplantation; clinical confocal microscopy; dry eye and ocular surface disease; corneal immunology; refractive surgery techniques and outcomes
Debra Thompson, Ph.D.	Molecular studies of the retinal pigment epithelium
Shawn Xu, Ph.D.	How sensory inputs are perceived by the nervous system; how neural circuits process information to generate behavior; and how genes and drugs of abuse regulate these processes