PROJECT SUMMARY The goal of the Idaho INBRE-4 Program is to continue to augment and strengthen Idaho's capacity to perform and sustain biomedical research. This Team Science Supplement, Dynamic Cellular Events in Assembling the Vertebrate Eye, will advance this goal by bringing together three University of Idaho (UI) investigators with complementary expertise in developmental neurobiology, immunology/glial biology/imaging, and image analysis/computer vision to address a key knowledge gap in biomedical science. Project co-directors will focus on the development of the vertebrate eye, and therefore will be directly in alignment with the Cell Signaling scientific theme of the Idaho INBRE-4 Program, as this organ carries out numerous developmental and functional signaling activities. This Supplement project will pursue the spatiotemporal dynamics of relationships among neuronal progenitors, neurons, glia, and non-nervous system cell types using live confocal imaging of developing zebrafish embryos, and novel means of image/video analysis. The project will generate reference static and dynamic atlases of vertebrate eye development over the time of retinal development/differentiation and create image and video analysis tools for the vision science community for systematic and quantitative comparison of eye phenotypes. These resources will be made publicly accessible and interactive and will utilize the INBRE Data Science Core facility at the UI. This Core and its infrastructure were or are supported by IDeA (COBRE and INBRE) awards and institutionally by the UI. The three project co-directors, DL Stenkamp, DM Mitchell, and L Nguyen all have strong research records and have mentored numerous trainees. This Supplement furthers their team approach and will provide preliminary data for future collaborative studies and competitive grant proposals, complying with the goal of this funding Supplement. This team science approach will benefit each investigator through their collective effort and bring new perspectives to address this key knowledge gap in developmental biology. The project research questions do not duplicate those currently being pursued by the parent Idaho INBRE-4 Program award. This Team Science Supplement to INBRE-4 encourages competitiveness that will continue to have an enduring impact on biomedical research and training in Idaho.

PROJECT NARRATIVE INBRE-4 will increase Idaho’s competitiveness in biomedical research and education. The statewide scientific Network will generate, complement, and enrich Idaho’s research capacity by mentoring new investigators, supporting research Cores, fostering regional collaborations, and providing student research opportunities.