ARVO Takes Its Show on the Road
Major speakers and awards headline Seattle meeting.
JERRY HELZNER, SENIOR EDITOR
After many years of meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) made the decision to give other major cities in different parts of the country an opportunity to host the event. Starting this year in Seattle from May 5 through May 9, the meeting will in future years be held in such cities as Orlando, Denver, Baltimore and Honolulu.
This year’s ARVO meeting, whose theme is “Life-Changing Research,” promises to be particularly interesting, highlighted by a series of three Keynote lectures from some of the most distinguished names in scientific research. In addition, the meeting will be preceded on May 3 by a one-day “Vision Innovation and Venture Forum” (see sidebar, page 73) featuring ophthalmologists who have been in the forefront of new treatments and techniques and noted venture capitalists who specialize in investing in novel ophthalmic concepts. Still, the heart of the ARVO meeting are the thousands of posters and presentations that each year bring new research to the forefront and lay the foundation for advancing ophthalmology in numerous areas.
Keynote Series Lectures
■ Oliver Smithies, PhD, 2007 Nobel Laureate, Physiology and Medicine, University of North Carolina, will deliver the first Keynote Series lecture on Sunday, May 5, at 2:45 p.m. His topic will be “On Being a Scientist for 60 Years.”
Dr. Smithies, former professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at University of North Carolina, codiscovered a technique to introduce DNA material in cells, or homologous DNA recombination. This “gene targeting” led to the creation of “designer mice” that replicated human disease, such as cystic fibrosis, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis and retinal disease. His research methods led scientists to create “knock-out mice” that have become invaluable in advancing biomedical research and have been the basis for thousands of published papers.
“I hope to convey to you a feeling of how enjoyable and long-lasting a life in science can be.” Dr. Smithies said of his speech. “Mine has been deeply satisfying and continues to be enjoyable and exciting.”
■ Roger Tsien, PhD, 2008 Nobel Laureate, Chemistry, University of California, San Diego, delivers the second Keynote Series lecture on Tuesday, May 7, at 5:30 p.m.
Dr. Tsien’s keynote presentation is titled “Engineering Phototransducing Molecules for Fun and Profit.”
Dr. Tsien was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) along with two other scientists. The multicolored fluorescent proteins are used to by scientists to track where and when certain genes are expressed in cells or in whole organisms. Typically, the gene coding for a protein of interest is fused with the gene of a fluorescent protein. This causes the protein of interest to glow inside the cell, allowing researchers to track its location in real time. This technique has added a new dimension to the fields of molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry.
“Much recent progress in biochemistry has resulted from the invention of molecules that enable us to visualize or photosimulate chemical pathways in living cells and tissues,” notes Dr. Tsien. “Such molecules can be devised by a variety of strategies … examples of both successes and failures will be chosen mainly from my own experience.”
Roger Tsien
■ Christopher Murray, MD, PhD, Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, will present the third Keynote Series lecture on Thursday, May 9, at 2 p.m. He will speak about “The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2010: Key Findings and Implications for Vision Research.”
Dr. Murray is a scholar in global health and public health and is the director of IHME, where he has studied adult and child mortality, costs of various health interventions and, along with colleagues from Harvard and the World Health Organization, the overall global burden of disease.
Dr. Murray’s keynote lecture will highlight key findings from GBD 2010, with a focus on vision loss in the context of other diseases, injuries and risk factors to demonstrate the global impact of vision impairment over the past two decades and implications for future vision research.
Christopher Murray
The Basic/Clinical Lecture
■ The topic of the Basic/Clinical Lecture, which will be given on Sunday, May 5, at 5:30 p.m., will be “Ocular Biopsy of Ocular Tissue: Recent Advances and Future Directions.”
The lecture will be delivered in sections, with several expert presenters participating in the areas of research outlined below:
Recent technological advances in fiber optics, light sources, detectors and molecular biology have stimulated the unprecedented development of numerous optical methods that promise to significantly improve scientists’ ability to visualize ocular tissues.
These methods, collectively termed “optical-biopsy,” are nondestructive in situ assays of histopathologic states using light that can provide instantaneous tissue assessment. This session will address the recent developments in biomedical optical imaging techniques, including ultra-high resolution optical coherence tomography (OCT), multispectral in vivo three-dimensional OCT, spectral domain OCT, 2-photon microscopy, photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy, in vivo labeling/SLO and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography and their application to clinical practice.
The Champalimaud Vision Award
The 2012 António Champalimaud Vision Award, with accompanying lectures from both of the award honorees, will be presented on Tuesday, May 7, at 7 p.m. This year, the award recognizes the development of two novel approaches to visualizing the living human retina in health and disease: optical coherence tomography (OCT) and adaptive optics technologies (AO).
James Fujimoto, PhD, will speak about the OCT methodologies he developed with his corecipients David Huang, MD, PhD, and Eric Swanson, MS, with application insights credited to Carmen Puliafito, MD, and Joel Schuman, MD, FARVO.
David Williams, PhD, will talk about the application of AO for imaging individual cones over time, thus allowing retinal changes due to aging and disease to be studied.
David Epstein
David Huang
Oliver Smithies
Nicolas Bazan
Achievement Awards Recipients
Please check schedule for days and times as each honoree will also speak about his work. Space does not permit coverage here of all the awards.
| Vision Innovation and Venture Forum. |
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■ The newest ophthalmic innovations will be the focus of this one-day seminar on May 3, connecting scientists, venture capitalists, pharmaceutical company representatives, along with makers of ophthalmic devices and instruments. Unlike other investor forums, such as the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit (OIS), this meeting will focus on new concepts in research that have the potential to lead to commercialized products, rather than hearing presentations from fledgling companies. The event, which will be held at the Renaissance Seattle Hotel, aims to help innovators and scientists better understand how products move through the development, approval and commercial pipeline while giving investors insights into treatments and devices that are nearing readiness for commercial development. Chairing the event will be Nicolas G. Bazan, MD, PhD, FARVO, of the LSU Health Sciences Center. Dr. Bazan is a neuroscientist and eye researcher, with particular recent research focus on neurodegenerative diseases and neuroprotective agents. Innovating In Various SettingsAmong the numerous topics to be discussed at this forum by successful ophthalmic innovators are the following: ■ Being an Entrepreneur in an Academic Environment. Henry F. Edelhauser, PhD, FARVO, of the Emory University School of Medicine, will recount his experiences in developing a minimally invasive approach to treating retinal disease using micro-needles in an academic setting. ■ Ophthalmic Innovation Through a Start-up Company. This panel discussion will focus on issues faced by ophthalmic start-up companies, including attracting venture capital, licensing options, regulatory hurdles, changes in the regulatory landscape, patent law and protection of intellectual property. The introduction will be given by Steve Charles, MD, FACS,FICS, noted retina specialist and founder and CEO of CamPlex LLC. Panelists will include Dr. Barzan and major figures with broad experience in the use of venture capital in successful ophthalmic innovation. These include Eugene de Juan, MD, developer of the ForSight Labs ophthalmic incubator in Menlo Park, Calif.; Emmett Cunningham, MD, PhD, MPH, co-founder of the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit, and Samir Patel, MD, president and CEO of Ophthotech Corporation. ■ Partnerships With Big Pharma. Scott Whitcup, MD, FARVO, chief scientific officer of Allergan, will offer what he calls “a blueprint for success” in partnering with established pharmaceutical companies. ■ Intellectual Property. William Harrington, MD, MBA, managing partner of Osage University Partners, will provide an update on the changing landscape of university technology transfer and its implications for venture capital investment. Wendy Hsu, IP counsel for ophthalmology at Pfizer, will offer her perspective on the protection of intellectual property in the biopharma sector. Dr. Blumenkranz to SpeakIn addition to these topics, Mark S. Blumenkranz, MD, MMS, an ophthalmic innovator and chairman of the ophthalmology department at Stanford University, will speak on his experiences in innovation spanning academia and industry. The afternoon will be devoted to researchers describing their early-stage innovations in such areas as glaucoma, AMD, cataract and dry eye. Expert panelists will then provide advice to these innovators in terms of attracting investment, regulatory requirements, clinical trials and assessing market opportunities. The seminar will close with a reception with opportunities for networking and individual discussion. |
Friedenwald and Weisenfeld Award
The Friedenwald Award, presented annually to recognize outstanding research in the basic or clinic sciences as applied to ophthalmology, will be presented to David Huang, MD, PhD, of the Oregon Health and Sciences University, Casey Eye Institute.
Dr. Huang is well-known for his seminal research in the development of OCT technology, which has revolutionized the field of ophthalmic imaging. He was the first to recognize that cross-sectional images could be generated and displayed in false color by scanning the laser measurement beam, thus essentially inventing OCT. Since then, OCT has emerged as a standard diagnostic in clinical ophthalmology and is now used for the most accurate diagnosis and monitoring of many eye diseases.
The Weisenfeld Award, presented annually to an individual in recognition of distinguished scholarly contributions to the clinical practice of ophthalmology, will go this to David Epstein, MD, MMM, of the Duke Eye Center.
Dr. Epstein is widely considered to be one of the most influential leaders in the world of glaucoma and glaucoma research for the past 30 years, He has developed novel drugs for the treatment of glaucoma, leading to 10 patents that involve all aspects of ophthalmic patient care and treatment. He has had continuous support from the NIH for the past 32 years, even while serving as a department chair for the past 20 years. He has been credited with inspiring generations of young ophthalmologists as a gifted mentor and teacher. OM
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