Retina 2022 Speakers and Agenda

Registrations are now open for our award-winning Retina conference. After two years of successfully hosting the conference virtually, we are very excited to be back to an in-person event once again for Retina 2022.

This year our conference will be running on November 3, 4 and 5 at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel Dublin City.

On Thursday, November 3 our colleagues from the StarT project will present 14 ESR fellows from the StarT network who will present their PhD studies. There will be additional keynote speakers covering the areas of IRD Genomics, Mechanisms of Disease, and Therapeutics. Tickets for the StarT Day are invite-only, however, there is the option to attend the event virtually.

Friday, November 4 is our fantastic Scientific Day and Saturday, November 5 will be our popular Public Engagement Day. While we hope to welcome you personally to our event, we are also aware that an in-person event may not suit everyone. We have virtual tickets available also for those who wish to attend the event online.

Retina 2022 is kindly supported by Abbvie, Roche, Specsavers and Novartis.

Click here to book your tickets

 

Please contact research@fightingblindness.ie or phone +353 1 678 9004 if you require any assistance registering.

 

Please note that agendas and timings are subject to change.

 

Thursday, November 3: StarT StarT Final Conference, hosted by Fighting Blindness at Retina 2022

Session 1: Mechanisms of Inherited Retinal Diseases. Chairs: Sandro Banfi, Zelia Corradi

09:00 – 9:45 Insights into IRD pathophysiology through disease modelling- patients to cells and zebrafish – Mariya Moosajee, Professor of Molecular Ophthalmology at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, Group Leader of Ocular Genomics and Therapeutics at the Francis Crick Institute, Consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, London, UK.

9:45 – 10:00 Meta-analysis of human retinal transcriptome data  – Karla Ruiz

10:00 – 10:15 Interaction map of cis‐regulatory elements controlling ABCA4 in human retina – Soraya Kalayanamontri

10:15 – 10:30 Mapping the cis-regulatory landscape of ABCA4 in adult human retina – Victor Lopez Soriano

10:30 – 10:45 Functional assessment of cis-regulatory elements of ABCA4 and characterization of an abca4 knock-out model in Xenopus tropicalis – Münevver Burcu Cicekdal

10:45 – 11:00 Identification and characterization of a novel retina-specific lncRNA upstream ABCA4 with a potential role in ABCA4-associated inherited retinal disease – Alfredo Dueñas Rey

 

Session 2: IRD Omics towards better diagnosis. Chairs: Carmel Toomes, Pietro De Angeli

11:30 – 12:15 Integrating Clinical and Structure/Functional Analysis of the Complex ABCA4 Locus – Rando Allikmets, William and Donna Acquavella Professor at the Departments of Ophthalmology and Pathology & Cell Biology, Director of Research at the Harkness Eye Institute, Columbia University, New York 

12:15  -12:30 Phasing at the ABCA4 locus – Ben McClinton

12:30  -12:45 Identification and splice assays of deep-intronic ABCA4 variants in mono-allelic STGD1 – Zelia Corradi

12:45 – 13:00 Using retinal organoids to better understand the pathology of late-onset STGD1 and address the missing heritability in monoallelic cases – Avril Watson

13:00 – 13:15 Antisense oligonucleotide-based splicing modulation therapies for deep-intronic ABCA4 variants in Stargardt Disease – Nuria Suárez Herrera

13:15 – 13:30 Antisense oligonucleotide-mediated treatment of STGD1 caused by variants in ABCA4 – Melita Kaltak

 

Session 3: New Therapies for IRD: Chairs: Susanne Kohl, Alfredo Dueñas Rey

15:00 – 15:45 Gene editing prospects for treating inherited retinal diseases – Alessandra Recchia, PhD, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy 

15:45 – 16:00 Pharmacological rescue of ABCA4 missense variant misfolding and traffic – Davide Piccolo

16:00 – 16:15 AAV-mediated modulation of mitochondrial function in in vitro and in vivo models of Stargardt Disease – Iris Post

16:15 – 16:30 Somatic or germline ABCA4 editing to generate a pig model of Stargardt disease type 1 – Eugenio Pugni

16:30 – 16:45 Effective CRISPR/Cas9-mediated rescue of an ABCA4 splicing defect in photoreceptor precursor cells – Pietro De Angeli

17:00 – 17:10 Closing Presentation – Elfride De Baere

 

Friday, November 4: Retina 2022 Scientific Day

09:15 – 09:30 Welcome Address – Finbarr Roche, CEO, Fighting Blindness

Session 1

Chair: Miss Julie Silvestri, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon, Clinical Director for Ophthalmology Services, Belfast Health & Social Care Trust, Belfast

09:30 – 10:00 Complement Therapies in Age-related Macular Degeneration – Professor Catherine Bowes Rickman, Duke University, Durham, NC

10:00 – 10:30 New Views of Retinal Structure and Function in Health and Disease – Professor Austin John Roorda, Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley CA

 

10:30 – 10:55 Oral Presentations 1 & 2

• Oral Presentation 1 – Characterisation of three novel animal models of geographic atrophy – Dr Natalie Hudson, TCD.
• Oral Presentation 2 – Economic Impact of late-stage Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) in the United States of America (USA), Germany and Bulgaria: a Cost-of-illness study – Dr Nabin Paudel, Retina International
• Panel Q&A session for speakers

 

10:55 – 11:30 Coffee and Poster Presentations

Session 2

Chair: Dr. Sarah Doyle, Associate Professor in Immunology, Trinity Institute of Neurosciences, TCD

11:30 – 12:00 Precision Ophthalmology for Stargardt/ABCA4 Disease – Rando Allikmets, William and Donna Acquavella Professor at the Departments of Ophthalmology and Pathology & Cell Biology, and Director of Research at the Harkness Eye Institute, Columbia University, New York 

12:00 – 12:30 Gene editing for Inherited Retinal Diseases – Alessandra Recchia, PhD, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy 

 

12:30 – 12:55 Oral Presentations 3 & 4

• Oral Presentation 3 – Using retinal organoids to better understand the pathology of late-onset STGD1 and address the missing heritability in monoallelic cases – Avril Watson, Newcastle University
• Oral Presentation 4 – Pharmacological rescue of ABCA4 missense variant misfolding and traffic – Davide Piccolo, UCL
• Panel Q&A session for speakers

 

12:55 – 13:45 Lunch break

13:45 – 14:30 Poster Presentations

 

Session 3

Chair: Oliver Blacque, Associate Professor, School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD

14:30 – 15:00 Dysfunction of the retinal pigment epithelial cells in retinal degeneration – Dr Abigail T. Fahim, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Kellogg Eye Center, University of Michigan

15:00 – 15:30 Eye2Gene: accelerating accurate diagnosis of inherited retinal disease with AI – Dr Nikolas Pontikos, Principal Investigator, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Brain Sciences, and Moorfields Eye Hospital, UK

 

15:30 – 16:00 Oral Presentations 5, 6, 7

• Oral Presentation 5 – Inherited retinal disease genes: study of their genomic organisation and identification of co-expressed long noncoding RNAs by meta-analysis of human retina transcriptome – Karla Alejandra Ruiz-Ceja, TIGEM
• Oral Presentation 6 – Loss of SARM1 Attenuates Chemokine Production & Immune Cell Infiltration During Retinal Degeneration – Luke Gibbons, TCD
• Oral Presentation 7 – Correcting retinal ganglion cell mitochondrial dysfunction with AAV-ophNdi1 – Dr Sophia Millington-Ward, TCD
• Panel Q&A session for speakers

 

16:00 – 16:15 Coffee and Poster Presentations

16:15 – 16:45 Clinical Research Update for Inherited Retinal Diseases – Ben Shaberman, Vice President, Science Communications at Foundation Fighting Blindness

 

Awards and Closing

Chair: Dr. Dairine Dempsey, Vice Chair Fighting Blindness board and Research Subcommittee

16:45 – 16:50 Poster Award

16:50 – 16:55 Geraldine Duggan Early Investigator Award, Sponsored by Novartis

16:55 – 17:10 Summary and closing address

 

Saturday, November 5: Retina 2022 Public Engagement Day

Public Engagement Day 10am – 2pm: Agenda subject to change/additions.

 

10:00 – 10:30 Welcome: Morning has broken – Visionaries Choir

10:30 – 10:35 Opening Address: We are Fighting Blindness, Finbarr Roche, CEO of Fighting Blindness

 

Session 1: Support and Engagement

10:35 – 10:55 The Fight Goes On. Video address from Michael Griffith

10:55 – 11:15 Life changes – and the most adaptable thrive. Breandan Ward, Xavier Society for the Blind

11:15 – 11:30 Peer Support – The partner’s perspective. Kathryn Sinnott, Fighting Blindness and Clodagh O’Donovan

11:30 – 11:45 Clinical trials must address the patients’ needs. Avril Daly, Retina International

11:45 – 12:15 Break

Session 2: Clinical, Science and Research

12:15 – 12:35 Panel discussion, Dr Ellen Moran, Fighting Blindness, joined by Dr Natalie Hudson and Dr Nikolas Pontikos

12:35 – 12:45 Developments in eye health. Video address from Professor David Keegan, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Mater Hospital

12:45 – 13:15 Stay Healthy: Good Eye Health Q&A. Dr. Emma Duignan, Consultant Ophthalmologist, The Royal Victoria Eye & Ear Hospital

13:15 – 13:25 Trinity College Dublin and Fighting Blindness: The story so far. Video presentation

13:25 – 13:55 The treatments currently being developed in eye care. Ben Shaberman, Foundation Fighting Blindness, USA