About Aviceda

David is the Co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Eyebio, which was acquired by Merck for a $3 billion. He is also a Venture Partner at SV Health Investors and is the Co-Founder, former CEO, and Executive Chairman of Iveric Bio (previously Ophthotech). He served as Chairman of Iveric Bio's board of directors from 2007 to 2017, as CEO from 2013 to 2017, and as Executive Chairman from 2017 to 2021. Under David's leadership, Iveric Bio entered into a partnership with Novartis that, at the time, was one of the largest ex-U.S. partnering transactions in biotechnology industry history. David in-licensed and developed IZERVAY, which created the first class of complement inhibitors commercially available for patients with dry macular degeneration. This endeavor led to the acquisition of Iveric by Astellas for $5.9 billion in 2023.

He has expansive medical, drug development, and commercial experience in ophthalmology. His expertise is highly sought after, and he has served on the boards of 27 companies, both public and private. In addition to co-founding EyeBio and Iveric Bio, David co-founded Eyetech Pharmaceuticals Inc. and served as its CEO and member of the board of directors from 2000 until the company's acquisition by OSI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in November 2005. At Eyetech, David developed and commercialized the first anti-VEGF drug for retinal diseases.

David has founded three companies with two of these completing IPOs. All three companies have been successfully acquired.

Prior to co-founding Eyetech Pharmaceuticals, David was a professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at New York University School of Medicine. David received a B.S. from Yale College and an M.D. from Johns Hopkins Medical School. He completed his ophthalmology residency at Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a retinal fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard Medical School.

Jeffrey Nau, Ph.D., M.M.S., is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Aviceda Therapeutics. He has over 20 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, with a career dedicated to ophthalmology and the treatment of retinal diseases.

Prior to joining Aviceda, Dr. Nau served as the Chief Operating Officer of Kalaris Therapeutics, where he played a key role in defining the company’s operational and strategic direction and oversaw its merger with Allovir, Inc. Previously, he was CEO of Oyster Point Pharma, where he led the company through its $92 million initial public offering in 2019, raised over $200 million in public capital, and managed multiple value-generating business development deals, including the company’s acquisition by Viatris in 2023. During his tenure, he was responsible for the development and commercial launch of TYRVAYA^® (varenicline solution), the first and only FDA-approved nasal spray approved for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. He also led the out-licensing of the company’s lead asset in Greater China in a $200 million+ deal.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Nau held leadership positions at Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche, where he contributed to the development and launch of multiple indications for Lucentis^® , a therapy that revolutionized the treatment of blindness and achieved global peak sales exceeding $4.3 billion. He has also held roles at several other biotech companies focused on ophthalmology, including NeoVista, Acuity Pharmaceuticals, and Genaera Corporation. While at these companies, Dr. Nau led the development of several transformative therapies in eye care and helped raise over $400 million in private equity for multiple early-stage ventures.

Dr. Nau is an inventor on multiple patents and has authored numerous peer reviewed publications. Dr. Nau holds a Ph.D. in Public Health and Epidemiology from Walden University, a Master of Medical Science from MCP Hahnemann College of Medicine, and a Bachelor’s in Biology from Stony Brook University.

Dr. Emmett T. Cunningham, Jr. is a physician-scientist, entrepreneur, and investor with more than two decades of experience in pharma, biotechnology, medical devices, and venture capital. He brings to Aviceda deep expertise in ophthalmology, immunology, clinical development, and the advancement of therapeutic innovation through strategic investment and board leadership.

Dr. Cunningham was previously a Senior Managing Director at the Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX), following its acquisition of Clarus Ventures, where he was a Managing Director. Over the course of his investment career, he has led or co-led financings that supported the FDA approval of ten therapeutics, including treatments in ophthalmology, endocrinology, hematology, and rare diseases.

Dr. Cunningham has served on the boards of more than a dozen life science companies across both private and public markets. He currently serves on the Boards of Eyconis, Oryon Cell Therapies, Nacuity Pharmaceuticals, and InflammX Therapeutics, and previously held board roles at Annexon Biosciences (NASDAQ: ANNX), GrayBug Vision (NASDAQ: GRAY), Lumos Pharma (NASDAQ: LUMO), the SFJ Pharmaceutical Group, SARcode Biosciences (acquired by Shire), Galera Therapeutics (GRTX), Neomend (acquired by Bard), Restoration Robotics (acquired by Venus Concept), Viewpoint Therapeutics, and Silktech Biopharmaceuticals. He is also a co-founder and personal seed investor in several early-stage companies, including Xeris Biopharma Holdings (NASDAQ: XERS), Aiolos Bio (acquired by GSK), Placid0 (acquired by WALDO), and Pr3vent Medical. He is Executive Chair of both Eyconis, a spinout of Ascendis Pharma (NASDAQ: ASND) and Oryon Cell Therapies.

Prior to his investing career, Dr. Cunningham was Senior Vice President of Medical Strategy at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: EYET), where he played a leadership role in the development of Macugen® (pegaptanib sodium), the first VEGF-A inhibitor approved for neovascular age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. Before Eyetech, he held clinical development and licensing roles at Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), focused on CNS and ophthalmology assets.

Dr. Cunningham is a board-certified ophthalmologist and internationally recognized expert in infectious and inflammatory eye disease and retina, with more than 400 co-authored publications. He is the founder and former chairman of the Ophthalmology Innovation Summit (OIS), which he led for over a decade in partnership with major ophthalmology congresses.

He holds an MD and MPH in epidemiology and statistics from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego, for research conducted at The Salk Institute. He completed residency and fellowship training in ophthalmology, corneal disease, and uveitis at UCSF and The Francis I. Proctor Foundation, with additional fellowships in Retina at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and Public Health Ophthalmology at The Dana Center of the Wilmer Eye Institute in Baltimore.

Dr. Cunningham currently teaches at California Pacific Medical Center, is an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at Stanford University, and a Research Associate at UCSF School of Medicine.

Bernard joined Omega Funds in 2020. He has extensive experience in the life sciences and biotech industry, marked by a number of successful transactions involving financings and M&A. Bernard currently serves on the Board of Directors of Endeavor BioMedicines, and Vanqua Bio. Bernard was previously a board member of EyeBio (acquired by Merck & Co in July 2024), Upstream Bio (Nasdaq: UPB), and Lexeo Therapeutics (Nasdaq:LXEO).

Bernard previously served as SVP and Managing Director at Sanofi Ventures, having first joined Sanofi in 2010 as Vice President, Deputy Global Head, Business Development. Over his 7-year tenure, Sanofi Ventures invested in 28 new companies and generated 14 exits (12 Nasdaq IPOs, 1 trade sale and 1 option deal).

Prior to Sanofi, Bernard held CEO, CFO and other leadership roles at Fovea Pharmaceuticals (which was sold to Sanofi in 2009 in a $540 million cash transaction), Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, Transgene (which successfully raised $100 million in a 1998 IPO on the NASDAQ/EuroNext) and Institut Mérieux (now Sanofi Pasteur).

Dr. Yu is the founder and Managing Partner at TCGX. Prior to founding TCGX, Dr. Yu spent sixteen years as a Managing Partner at Vivo Capital, a life sciences focused investor with $4.5 B AUM. Dr. Yu has extensive operating experience with leadership roles at both private and public companies, including stints as the COO of Sagent Pharmaceuticals and CBO of China KangHui, both of which went public and were ultimately acquired.

Dr. Yu has served on the board of over a dozen private/public companies, including Artios, Upstream Bio, Structure Therapeutics (NASDAQ:GPCR), Arbor Biotechnologies, Tarsus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TARS), Sagent Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SGNT, acquired by Nichi-I-Ko), China Kanghui (NYSE:KH, acquired by Medtronic), Rempex (acquired by Medicines Company), Kala (NASDAQ:KALA), Nabriva (NASDAQ: NBRV), Surgical Specialties (acquired by GTCR), Sentre Heart (acquired by Atricure), and NKF Pharma (SHA: 603707). While at Vivo, he also led investments in Zai Labs (NASDAQ: ZLAB), RiverVision (acquired by Horizon), CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP), Intellia (NASDAQ: NTLA), Durata (acquired by Actavis), Trauson (acquired by Stryker), and Revolution Medicines (NASDAQ:RVMD).

Dr. Yu also serves on the California Leadership Council for the Nature Conservancy and was previously a member of the Stanford Medical School Alumni Board of Governors. Dr. Yu received his M.D. and M.B.A. from Stanford University and graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Biology from Harvard University.

Erin Lavelle has over 25 years of strategic and operational leadership experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. She most recently served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at ProfoundBio where she led a $112 million Series B and IPO preparation and negotiated a $1.9 billion sale to Genmab in 2024.

Prior to her leadership roles at ProfoundBio, she was the COO/CFO at Eliem Therapeutics, a biotechnology firm based in Seattle. She was instrumental in orchestrating Eliem's Initial Public Offering (IPO). Before Eliem, she was the COO of Alder Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., where she led Alder’s $2.3 billion acquisition by H. Lundbeck A/S. Her extensive tenure in the biopharmaceutical sector also includes 15 years at Amgen, culminating as the General Manager of Amgen's Taiwan affiliate. Prior to this leadership role, she was based in Hong Kong as an Executive Director for the Japan Asia-Pacific region, spearheading Commercial Excellence and Digital Health initiatives. Her earlier positions at Amgen involved executive leadership in Global Marketing, Global Commercial Finance, and Strategy & Corporate Development. Erin began her career as an investment banker within the healthcare group at Merrill Lynch & Co. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Economics from Yale University and has served on the boards of Neoleukin (NLTX) and Vitaeris, a private company located in Vancouver.

Evelyn M. Harrison brings more than 30 years of experience in the biotech industry. Her responsibilities grew progressively with each position she held in each of the three biotech companies during her career. She has experience in management, clinical research and development.

For the first ten years, she was Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Ophthotech Corp. which was later reorganized to IVERIC Bio where she held the position of Chief Clinical Operating Officer. During her tenure at IVERIC Bio, she was instrumental in the approval of Izervay™ for the treatment of Geographic Atrophy (GA).

Prior experience with Eyetech Pharmaceuticals as Senior Vice-President of clinical research and development, Evelyn played a key role in the development and approval of Macugen® (pegaptanib sodium) for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration.

Evelyn began her career at Hoffmann LaRoche, where she held several positions in clinical development. She was responsible for the development and implementation of strategic programs for Roche’s oncology and virology franchise. She also had experience working on all phases of global clinical trials in multiple therapeutic areas such as ophthalmology, bone marrow and organ transplantation.

Evelyn holds a BA degree in Biology from Hofstra University and an MBA degree from Manhattan College.

Dr. Rafaèle Tordjman, MD PhD, has been an investor in life sciences for 20 years. She started her career at Sofinnova Partners, a Paris-based venture capital firm, in 2001, as an analyst, and became co-leader and Managing partner with €1.5 billion in assets under management.

Prior to joining Sofinnova Partners, Dr. Tordjman worked as a physician and researcher in haemato-oncology. She worked at the Paris University Hospitals as a medical doctor specialising in internal medicine and clinical hematology. She completed her post-doctoral work in immunology at INSERM.

In 2018, Dr. Tordjman founded Jeito Capital, an independent investment company dedicated to biopharma to invest in the next generation of leaders in medical innovation. Jeito I raised €534 million ($630 million) in September 2021, becoming the largest independent European fund in Life Sciences.

In September 2020, Dr. Tordjman was awarded Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, France’s highest distinction. In July 2021, she was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron to promote the French biotech ecosystem among leading international players.

Dr. Tordjman has also been nominated in the 2023 Forbes “50 Over 50” selection across Europe, Middle East and Africa, spotlighting successful women who are reaching new heights in their industries.

To engage more women in the life sciences industry, in 2010 Dr. Tordjman founded the association W.I.T.H.(Women Innovating Together in Healthcare) that now has a global membership of 500 women representing the full chain of medical innovation.

Sara Nayeem, M.D. is Executive Vice President, Investments at Enavate Sciences. Sara has 20 years of experience in biotech investing and advisory services. She previously served as Partner at Avoro Ventures, a biopharma venture fund she helped launch in 2021. Previously she was a Partner at New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA), where she spent 12 years as part of the biopharma investing group.

Over her investing career, Sara has played a key diligence and management role in 29 investments, from which there have been 11 IPOs and 10 acquisitions with upfront payments exceeding $16 billion. Prior to joining NEA, Sara was an Associate with Merrill Lynch’s Global Healthcare Group, where she advised biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies on mergers, acquisitions and financing transactions. She began her career as an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley. Sara earned her A.B. in Biology from Harvard College magna cum laude and concurrent M.D./MBA degrees from Yale University.

Marla joined Omega Funds in 2023. She focuses on private company investments.

In addition to her role at Omega, Marla is currently a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she sees patients in the acute care setting and mentors trainees. Her clinical research in hematologic malignancies, supported by a grant from the American Cancer Society, has been published in peer-reviewed journals. She previously worked in a strategy role at a seed-stage biotech start-up, as a fellow at Vida Ventures, and as a summer associate at McKinsey & Company.

Marla completed her clinical training in Internal Medicine at Yale, where she graduated with a Distinction in Quality Improvement and Physician Leadership and was the Chief Strategy Officer of the Yale Medical Innovation Group. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MD from Tufts University, and an AB in Chemistry from Princeton University.

Prior to joining TCGX, Haithem was a Senior Associate at Evercore ISI, focusing on SMID Cap biotech coverage. Prior to Evercore, he was a consultant at Eversana Consulting and Deallus. Haithem received a B.Sc. in Pharmacology from McGill University.

Jay Woods is a seasoned serial entrepreneur, business executive, and financial expert with 20 years of experience delivering strategic solutions to businesses.

As the Founder and President of Omega Accounting Solutions, an accounting, finance, and tax consulting firm located in Irvine, California, Woods has established long-term strategic partnerships with clients and helped grow the business into a thriving national provider recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America. He is also the founder of the Braided Cord Foundation, a non-profit that provides support, training, and opportunity to people from under-resourced communities worldwide.

Woods started his career in finance and tax, working as a Controller for an action-sports apparel company and as a Tax Accountant for several CPA firms that catered to high-net-worth individuals. Through these roles, he developed his expertise in strategic financial planning and business operations. Woods holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from California State University, Long Beach.

Professor Stanley obtained her PhD in the laboratory of Prof. David White, Dept. of Microbiology, University of Melbourne, Australia. She was subsequently a postdoctoral fellow of the MRC of Canada in the laboratory of Dr. Louis Siminovitch at the University of Toronto, where she began her work on the isolation of somatic cell glycosylation mutants.

She was appointed Assistant Professor of Cell Biology at Albert Einstein in New York in 1977 and became a full Professor in 1986. She was Program Leader of the Molecular Membrane Biology program of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center from 1988 to 2012. She has been Associate Director for Laboratory Research of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center since 2002. From 1994 to 2007 she directed a NIH T32 graduate student training grant. She currently holds the Horace W. Goldstein Foundation Chair at Albert Einstein. Professor Stanley is an Associate Editor of Glycobiology and on the editorial boards of Scientific Reports and FASEB BioAdvances. Her laboratory is funded by grants from the NIH and she is the recipient of the Karl Meyer Award from the Society for Glycobiology and the IGO award from the International Glycoconjugate Organization. Professor Stanley’s laboratory is focused on identifying roles for mammalian glycans in development, cancer and Notch signaling. Her laboratory has isolated a large panel of Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) glycosylation mutants, characterized them at the biochemical, structural and genetic levels, and used them to identify new aspects of glycan synthesis and functions. The Stanley lab has shown that MGAT1 is essential for spermatogenesis in mammals; that loss of MGAT3 and the bisecting GlcNAc on complex N-glycans, leads to increased tumor burden and metastasis in the MMTV/PyMT mouse model of human breast cancer; revealed key functional roles for O-fucose glycans and the three Fringe enzymes in Notch signaling; shown that deletion of the O-fucosyltransferase POFUT1 leads to embryonic death at mid-gestation with a phenotype typical of global loss of Notch signaling; and that a point mutation to eliminate the O-fucose glycan in the ligand binding domain of NOTCH1 causes defective T cell development in a mixed genetic background, but embryonic lethality in a C57BL/6J background. The Stanley laboratory is currently investigating roles for the O-fucose glycans of NOTCH receptors in T and B cell development and intestinal development and cancer, as well as determining why MGAT1 is required for spermatogenesis, and biological roles of the testis-specific inhibitor of MGAT1 termed MGAT4D.

Ajit Varki received basic training in physiology, medicine, biology, and biochemistry at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, The University of Nebraska, and Washington University in St. Louis. He also has formal training and certification in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology. He is currently a distinguished professor of medicine and cellular and molecular medicine, Co-director of the Glycobiology Research and Training Center at UCSD and executive editor of the textbook Essentials of Glycobiology. He is also Executive Co-director for the UCSD/Salk Center for Academic Research and Training in Anthropogeny, and an Adjunct Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Dr. Varki is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians.

Dr. Varki is recipient of a MERIT award from the NIH, an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award, and two highest honors in the field, the Karl Meyer Award of the Society for Glycobiology and the International Glycoconjugate Organization (IGO) Award (2007). He is also recognized for creating the first major open access research journal (JCI, 1996) as well as the first major open access textbook (Essentials of Glycobiology, 2008). He is a member of the Faculty of 1000 and a specialist advisor to the Human Gene Nomenclature Committee and the Vertebrate Gene Nomenclature Committee. He was honored with the Old Cottonian of Eminence Award at the 150th Anniversary of Bishop Cotton Boy's School, Bangalore, India, (2015) as well as the Annual Research Day Distinguished Faculty Medal and Oration at his medical school alma mater, the Christian Medical College, Vellore. Significant past appointments include: Associate Dean for Physician-Scientist Training at UCSD (2003-10); co-head, UCSD Division of Hematology/Oncology (1987-89): president of the Society for Glycobiology (1996); editor-in-chief of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (1992-97); interim directorship of the UCSD Cancer Center (1996-97); president of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (1998-99); consulting editor for the Journal of Clinical Investigation (1998-2006), and PLoS Medicine (2004-2008); scientific advisor to the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (University of Georgia) and the Yerkes Primate Center (Emory University); member of the National Advisory Committee of PubMed Central (NLM/NIH); and coordinator for the multidisciplinary UCSD Project for Explaining the Origins of Humans (1996-2007). His interests in human evolution also led him to propose a novel Mind over Reality Transition theory about human origins, in the book, DENIAL.

Prof. Van Kooyk is Head of the Molecular Cell Biology and Immunology Department at the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands that consists of 120 scientists/investigators that work in the field of Cancer Immunology, Mucosal Immunology, Neuro Immunology, and Dermatology. Prof. Kooyk had her PhD training at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (1989-1993) in the field of transplantation immunology revealing pioneering molecular mechanisms that regulate immune cell adhesion through integrin activation. From her postdoc-to associate professor at Radboud UMC (1994-2000), and training at Genentech, US, she focused her research on cell adhesion and Dendritic cells in inflammatory immune processes. In 2000, she discovered the innate receptor DC-SIGN, a C-type lectin on Dendritic cells, playing a crucial role in HIV recognition and cellular interactions through the recognition of glycan structures. This discovery set the stage for a new field that led to novel concepts on pathogen glycosylations that interact with the host via recognition by C-type lectin receptor, present on innate immune cells such as Dendritic cells and modulate immune responses.

Prof. Van Kooyk’s research team is working on dendritic cell (DC) mediated immune responses guided by glycosylation. Her work is focused on innate immune responses and cellular communication driven by modified glycoproteins/lipids in cancer, infection, and autoimmunity. Central in her work is the development of new glycan modified cancer vaccines targeting skin resident antigens presenting cells such as DC. Her research is aimed to discover glycan imposed regulatory immune imprinting by inflamed tissue and tumor microenvironment. Prof. Kooyk studies these questions in in-vivo mouse tumor models such as pancreatic cancer, colon and melanoma and human in-vitro models such as skin model, tumor tissues and complex 3D culture models to identify cellular communication at omics level in the context of tissue alterations.

Prof. Van Kooyk was awarded various NWO grants (PIONIER-ASPASIA-TOP) and EU grants (ERC Advanced-Eurostars-H2020) and the van Loghem award for life-time achievement in field of Immunology (2014). She received the SPINOZA award in 2019, a highest scientific award in the Netherlands, and is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW, 2018) and Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (KHMW, 2020). She published more than 280 scientific papers in well recognized journals (Cell, Nature, Nature Immunology, PNAS, and JEM) and supervised 29 PhD students. She is inventor of 6 patents.

Prof. Van Kooyk’s animated short film called “Glycotreat - The Next Step in Curing Cancer” won the GSF Awards Cannes (2018) and Raw Science Film Festivals (2019).

Geert-Jan Boons is the UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor in Biochemical Sciences at the Department of Chemistry and the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (CCRC) of the University of Georgia (USA) and Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicinal and Biological Chemistry of Utrecht University (The Netherlands).

He received a B.S. and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Leiden University (The Netherlands) and spent 7 years in the UK, first as a postdoctoral fellow at Imperial College, London, and the University of Cambridge, and then as a lecturer and professor at the University of Birmingham. In 1998, he joined the faculty of the Department of Chemistry and CCRC of the University of Georgia, and in 2015 he accepted an academic appointment at Utrecht University.

Among several recognitions, he has received the Creativity in Carbohydrate Science Award by the European Carbohydrate Association (2003), the Horace Isbell Award by the Division of Carbohydrate Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (ACS) (2004), the Roy L. Whistler International Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry by the International Carbohydrate Organization (ICO) (2014), the Hudson Award (2015), and the Cope Mid- Career Scholar Award from the ACS (2016).

His research program deals with the synthesis and biological functions of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates. The diversity of topics to which the group has significantly contributed includes the development of new and better methods for synthesizing exceptionally complex carbohydrates and glycoconjugates.

A hallmark of Prof. Boons’ research program is to employ chemical synthesized target compounds for biological and biomedical explorations and in particular, his research group has made important contributions to the understanding of immunological properties of complex oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates at the molecular level. A highlight has been the design, chemical synthesis, and immunological examination of three-component vaccine candidates that offer a prospect to be employed as a therapeutic vaccine for many types of epithelial cancer. His laboratory is a pioneer in the development of convergent strategies for complex oligosaccharide assembly, which make it possible to synthesize large collections of compounds with a minimal effort for structure activity relationship studies. A highlight of such an approach was the introduction of a chemo-enzymatic strategy that has provided a library of the most complex N-glycans ever synthesized. In addition, his lab was the first to develop an automated system for the rapid enzymatic assembly of complex glycans, which made possible, for the first time, to prepare representative collections of cell surface glycans for the development of the next generation of glycan microarray that can probe the importance of glycan complexity for biological recognition. These efforts have let to identification of glycans for various glycan binding proteins that are being further developed as glycomimetics for drug development for various diseases.

Prof. Boons was the first to employ chiral auxiliaries for the stereoselectively introduction 1,2-cis-glycosides, and this approach is significantly expanding the scope of polymer-supported oligosaccharide synthesis.

The Boons group has also made significant contributions to the development of methods for visualizing glycoconjugates of living cells. They have demonstrated that derivatives of dibenzylcyclooctyne are ideal for strain promoted cycloadditions with dipoles such as azides that can be introduced into glycoconjugates by enzymatic transformations. They have also introduced new chemical reports such as nitrile oxides and nitrones that make it possible to more efficiently label complex glycans of living cells. Using the new labelling methodology, they have established that Niemann-Pick type C (NPC) disease, which is fatal genetic disorder, is associated with a previously unrecognized defect in recycling of glycoproteins. This finding is paving the way for the development of new treatment strategy for NPC disease.

Ronald Schnaar, PhD, is the John Jacob Abel Professor of Pharmacology and a Professor of Neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. His biomedical research focuses on the roles of glycans and glycan recognition in the physiology and pathology of the nervous and immune systems. He has performed and directed glycobiology research for nearly 50 years.

His biomedical research team discovered that gangliosides, major glycans of nerve cells and axons, function in axon-myelin interactions, including stabilization of axons and the control of axon regeneration after injury. His team identified glycans on human neutrophils that initiate neutrophilic inflammation and glycans in airways that regulate human eosinophilic and mast cell (allergic) inflammation. In their latest studies his team discovered a unique glycan in the human brain that regulates debris clearance and has implications for Alzheimer’s disease progression. Dr. Schnaar has served as the Editor-in-chief of the journal Glycobiology, co-editor of the textbook Essentials of Glycobiology, President of the Society for Glycobiology, Steering Committee Member of the Consortium for Functional Glycomics and Director of the Lung Inflammatory Disease Program of Excellence in Glycosciences, a multi-institutional NIH-funded program to harness glycan recognition to treat asthma and other inflammatory lung diseases.

Professor Chris Scott is Deputy Head of School, School of Medicine, Dentistry & Biomedical Sciences and Director of the Patrick G Johnston Centre for Cancer Research at Queen’s University Belfast.

Following a primary degree in Biochemistry, Chris undertook a PhD and post-doctoral training at Queen’s in molecular enzymology. In 2001, Chris was one of the founding members of QUB spinout company Fusion Antibodies Ltd., before returning to Queen’s in 2003 to take up an academic position. Chris is internationally renowned for his work in development of antibody, antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), and nanomedicine-based therapies for the treatment of cancer and other therapeutic applications. Hi research work in his laboratory is funded by agencies such as Medical Research Council, US-Ireland, and various industrial sources such as AstraZeneca and Immunocore. Chris also held a Royal Society Industrial Fellowship with GSK and won the Vice Chancellor’s Prize for Innovation in 2015 for developing a novel nanomedicine for the treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory conditions. Chris is a member of the Medical Research Council Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme Panel and is actively involved in numerous nanomedicine societies across the Europe/UK and is a Trustee of the British Society of Nanomedicine.

Dr. Tolentino attended Deerfield Academy and received his honors bachelor’s degree in computer science and organizational behavior from Brown University and his Medical degree from the University of Massachusetts. After medical school, he did a post-doctoral angiogenesis research fellowship at the Harvard Medical School with Dr. Judah Folkman. During this fellowship he helped develop a xenograft model system to identify endogenous anti-angiogenic therapies. This model was the basis for isolating angiogenic inhibitors such as endostatin and angiostatin. Dr. Tolentino’s research focus in retinal diseases began by studying Verteporfin (Photodynamic Therapy; PDT) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). He demonstrated that PDTs effect on vasculature was not a result of thermal damage. This work and the work of others lead to the FDA approval of Verteporfin PDT, a drug marketed by QLT and Novartis. He also demonstrated that VEGF was sufficient and necessary to produce all the findings of diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration. Dr. Tolentino has been very active in the clinical research of retinal diseases, acting as Principle Investigator in over 150 global clinical trials that led to multiple global approval for retina therapeutics.

Dr. Tolentino earned numerous awards and received several prestigious grants while at University of Pennsylvania including the Heed/Knapp, AOS, Ron Michels, AUPO fellowships as well as RPB and K08 NEI research grants. His research focused on gene, cellular and stem cell therapies. He collaborated with Drs. Jim Wilson (Inventor of Ex Vivo Gene Therapy) and Jean Bennett (Inventor of Gene therapy [Luxturna] for Leber Congenital Amaurosis scientific foundation for Spark Therapeutics) on the development of regulatable adeno-associated gene therapy vectors to deliver anti-angiogenic therapies. He invented a regulatable gene therapy adeno-associated virus (AAV) using a heat shock promoter that could be regulated by transpupillary thermotherapy.

His major accomplishment is the invention of a new class of gene silencing molecules called small interfering RNA (siRNA) against anti-angiogenic targets. He had 3 issued patents on the use of these molecules for treating neovascular diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and cancer. He was the first to demonstrate that the RNA interference mechanism worked in vertebrate organisms. The discovery of siRNA and its mechanisms in invertabrate worms resulted in the Nobel prize in Medicine for Craig Mello and Andrew Fire in 2006.

With these inventions, Dr. Tolentino co-founded and served as the interim CEO for Acuity Pharmaceuticals, where he raised approximately $27 million in private and venture funds. Acuity Pharmaceuticals merged with publicly traded Exegenic, owned completely by the Miami Based Frost Gamma private equity group, to form OPKO health (NYSE: OPK), a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company. OPKO’s current market cap is over $2 billion.

He has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and over 100 publications in the field of anti-angiogenic, retinal, and macular degeneration therapies.

Robert L. Avery, MD is the founder and CEO of California Retina Consultants, Santa Barbara CA. He received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University and took his ophthalmology training there at the Wilmer Eye Institute. He completed a vitreoretinal fellowship at Duke University under Dr. Robert Machemer, Brooks McCuen, and Gene de Juan. Dr. Avery returned to Johns Hopkins as Assistant Chief of Service and head of the trauma unit. He later went on to found California Retina Consultants, which grew into one of the largest retina practices in California and recently merged with several other national practices to form Retina Consultants of America.

During the growth and expansion of CRC, Dr. Avery continued clinical and basic science research, especially in the field of angiogenesis and VEGF. He and his colleges at CRC had a role in pioneering the clinical use of anti-VEGF agents for retinal diseases. He founded the California Retina Research Foundation, which currently has over 30 active clinical research trials ongoing.

D. Avery has received numerous honors and awards, including Senior honor awards from the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Society of Retina Specialists, where he also serves on the board of directors. He was the first recipient of the Ronald G. Michels Fellowship Award. He is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Retina Society, the Macula Society, the American Society of Retinal Specialists, the Vit-Buckle Society, and the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology. He is a member of the Medical Leadership Board of Retina Consultants of America.

Dr. Avery is the co-editor of Retina Today, and he has published over 80 peer-reviewed articles on retinal diseases. His interests include the development of improved retinal drugs and their delivery, and he holds patents in retinal drug delivery. He is a partner in two ophthalmology venture capital companies, and he is on the board of several start-up companies developing ocular drugs and improving their delivery.

David S. Boyer, M.D. is a Board-certified ophthalmologist specializing in the treatment of diseases of the retina and vitreous. He is Senior Partner at Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group with offices in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, North Hollywood, Torrance, Pasadena, and Tarzana, California.

Dr. Boyer is a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology with the University of Southern California/Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles.

He has an extensive research background and is currently an investigator for numerous clinical trials. He is one of the leading retinal clinical researchers in the United States for new treatments in macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. A widely published author and avid lecturer, Dr. Boyer lectures nationally and internationally on retinal research and the innovative approach to the treatment of retinal diseases.

Jeffrey S. Heier, M.D., is the Co-President and Medical Director, Director of the Vitreoretinal Service, and Director of Retina Research at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston (OCB), one of the largest and most prestigious multi-specialty ophthalmology practices in the United States. Dr. Heier received his medical degree from Boston University, then did a transitional internship and ophthalmology residency at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. Between his internship and residency, Dr. Heier served as a physician in a Combat Support Hospital in the Persian Gulf War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star. Dr. Heier then completed a vitreoretinal fellowship at Ophthalmic Consultants of Boston/Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Heier is on the Executive Board of the Retina Society, the Executive Committee of the American Society of Retina Specialists, is the Past President of the New England Ophthalmological Society, and a member of the Macula Society. Dr. Heier is the past Secretary of Online Education for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the past President of the Center for Eye Research and Education Foundation in Boston, MA.

From the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Dr. Heier received the Senior Achievement Award in 2010, the Secretariat Award in 2007, and the Honor Award in 2003. He is also the recipient of the Honor Award and Senior Honor Award from the American Society of Retina Specialists.

Dr. Heier is one of the leading retinal clinical researchers in the country for new treatments in exudative and non-exudative macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, venous occlusive disease, vitreoretinal surgical techniques and instrumentation, and diagnostic imaging of the retina. He serves on the Scientific Advisory Board or as Clinical Design Consultant to over thirty biotechnical or pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Heier is the lead investigator on numerous clinical trials, ranging from phase I safety and proof of concept trials to phase IV post-marketing studies.

Dr. Heier lectures nationally and internationally on retinal research and the innovative approach to the treatment of retinal diseases. He has authored or co-authored numerous works in peer-reviewed journals, as well as served as a reviewer for the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Ophthalmology, Archives of Ophthalmology, American Journal of Ophthalmology, Retina, and numerous other journals.

Peter K. Kaiser, M.D. graduated magna cum laude with Highest Honors from Harvard College and magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School. He completed an internal medicine internship at Massachusetts General Hospital, an ophthalmology residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, and a vitreoretinal fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute before joining the vitreoretinal department of the Cole Eye Institute at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio where he is the Chaney Family Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology Research and Professor of Ophthalmology at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.

As a National Eye Institute and National Institute of Health RO1-funded principal investigator, Dr. Kaiser leads a team involved in the evaluation of vascular biology in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and diabetic retinopathy (DR). In addition, Dr Kaiser is actively involved in clinical research having served as Study Chairman for numerous major, multi-center, international clinical trials, and principal investigator in over 60 trials evaluating new treatments for AMD, DR, and other retinal disorders. He is the director of Center for Ocular Research and Evaluation (CORE). Dr. Kaiser has been honored to receive the Lew R. Wasserman Award from the Research to Prevent Blindness and the Macula Society’s Young Investigator Award. Complementing his research endeavors, Dr. Kaiser serves on numerous scientific advisory boards and addresses his research interests as an invited speaker at national and international conferences. He is a major contributor to the medical literature having authored 7 textbooks, 30 book chapters, and more than 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He is Editor-in-Chief of Retinal Physician, Associate Editor of International Ophthalmology Clinics, and serves on the editorial boards of American Journal of Ophthalmology, Retina, Retina Today, and Ocular Surgery News.

Dr. Kaiser has been recognized by American Society of Retina Specialists Honor and Senior Honor Awards, along with the American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement, Senior Achievement, and Lifetime Achievement Awards. He has been listed as one of the “Best Doctors in America” every year since 2002 and named one of the “150 Top Innovators in Retina” by Ocular Surgery News, selected as a charter inductee of the Retina Hall of Fame in 2017, and appeared on the biannual Ophthalmologist’s “Power List” in 2016, 2018, and 2020 as one of the top 100 most influential people in the world of ophthalmology. He is the team ophthalmologist for the Cleveland Cavaliers (National Basketball Association).

Arshad M. Khanani, MD, MA, FASRS is a Managing Partner, Director of Clinical Research, and Director of Fellowship at Sierra Eye Associates and Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine.

Dr. Khanani founded the clinical research department at Sierra Eye Associates, which is now one of the leading clinical research centers in USA. He has served as a principal investigator for over 90 clinical trials and has been a top enroller for multiple global Phase 1-3 trials. In addition, Dr. Khanani has been the first one to perform surgical procedures in multiple surgical clinical trials dealing with sustained delivery and gene therapy for ophthalmic applications.

Dr. Khanani also serves as a member of national and international clinical trial steering committees as well as scientific advisory boards with the goal of bringing new treatment options for patients with retinal diseases. Dr. Khanani is frequently invited as a guest speaker at national and international meetings. He is passionate about teaching and frequently chairs and participates in continuing medical education events. With the goal of achieving advances in vitreoretinal research and development, Dr. Khanani founded the Clinical Trials at the Summit (CTS) meeting, designed to stimulate discussion on clinical trial design and data.

Dr. Khanani is an elected member of the Retina Society and has received numerous awards of distinction. In 2019, he received the Nevada Business Magazine Healthcare Heroes Physician of the Year award for his continued dedication to the field of ophthalmology. He has received the Senior Honor Award from the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS) and was also awarded the prestigious ASRS Presidents’ Young Investigator Award in 2021.

Baruch D. Kuppermann, M.D., Ph.D. is the Roger F. Steinert Professor, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology, and Director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute at the University of California, Irvine. He also holds a joint appointment with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine.

After completing his Ph.D. in neuroscience at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Kuppermann went on to earn an M.D. at the University of Miami, and completed fellowships in Retina at both St. Joseph’s in Baltimore, Maryland under Drs Ron Michels and Bert Glaser, and at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Kuppermann’s laboratory research focuses on assessing the toxicity of drugs on retinal cells in culture, including various vital stains, steroids, and anti-VEGF compounds. More recently his lab has modified its focus to study the effect of mitochondrial genetics on retinal diseases such as age related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. He is active in the development of drug delivery systems for the posterior segment through collaborative work with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UC Irvine, for which he holds several patents. Dr. Kuppermann is also co-director of the Center for Translational Vision Research at UC Irvine, which is focused on developing new treatments for blinding retinal conditions. Dr. Kuppermann is a well-known teacher and lecturer, having given numerous named lectures and been an invited visiting professor at many academic institutions. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles in the medical literature, and over 50 book chapters. He is also strongly involved in clinical research, having served as Principal Investigator in many trials evaluating new drugs and technologies for the treatment of age related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, retinal vein occlusion, retinitis pigmentosa, and other diseases of the posterior segment.

Eleonora (Nora) Lad, MD, PhD is a clinician scientist and retinal ophthalmologist with the primary goal of developing novel strategies for early diagnosis and treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other retinal degenerative disease. She completed ophthalmology residency at Stanford University where she was awarded the Heed Fellowship, and a medical retina fellowship at Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Lad has fulfilled the role of international lead PI for the Apellis phase 3 OAKS study for geographic atrophy (GA) secondary to AMD, the first large phase 3 trial in GA that met its primary endpoint. Dr. Lad serves on the Executive Advisory Boards on multiple companies and advises industry sponsors on novel, approvable visual function assessments in the context of clinical trials for retinal disease, with particular expertise in dry AMD (intermediate and GA) and inherited retinal degeneration. She has assisted with clinical trial protocol design and presentations to the regulatory agencies (FDA and EMA). Dr. Lad serves as a member of the FDA/NEI Ophthalmic Imaging Collaborative Communities on AMD Imaging and Artificial Intelligence, as Heed Society faculty, and on the Advisory Board of the Innovative Medicine-2 (IMI-2) consortium leading the MACUSTAR program. Dr. Lad has served as the director of grading for retina clinical trials at Duke Reading Center and primary investigator for investigator-initiated and phase 1 through 3 clinical trials at the Duke Eye Center.

Dr. Lad was awarded the Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) from the National Eye Institute, the Veterans Affairs Clinical Science Research and Development I01 Merit Award, the 2016 ARVO/Alcon Early Career Clinician-Scientist Research Award, Research to Prevent Blindness Ernest & Elizabeth Althouse Special Scholar Award, Duke Health Scholar, and a number of foundation grants.

Dr. Carl Regillo was a Phi Kappa Phi graduate of Northeastern University, College of Pharmacy, where he was the class Valedictorian. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School on a full military scholarship. He performed his internship in internal medicine at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and both his ophthalmology residency and vitreoretinal fellowship at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia. He was appointed the Co-Chief Resident and awarded a Heed Ophthalmic Fellowship during his postgraduate training.

After training, he was commissioned a Major in the United States Air Force and stationed four years as a vitreoretinal surgeon at the San Diego Naval Medical Center. There he was Co-Director of the Ophthalmology Department’s Retina Service, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Diego, and recipient of a Naval Commendation medal and the Ophthalmology Department’s annual teaching award. In 1998, he returned to Philadelphia to join Mid Atlantic Retina and the Retina Service of Wills Eye Hospital.

Dr. Regillo is currently the Director of the Retina Service of Wills Eye Hospital, Professor of Ophthalmology at Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine, and Principal Investigator of numerous major international clinical trials investigating new forms of treatment for macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and a variety of other retinal conditions. He is the founder and former Director of the Wills Eye Clinical Retina Research Unit, prior Chairman of the Wills Eye Institutional Review Board and prior Chairman of the American Academy’s Basic and Clinical Science Course (BCSC) Retina Section committee. He is the former Wills Retina Fellowship Program Director.

Dr. Regillo has authored over 200 scientific papers, lectured nationally and abroad, and has published nine major textbooks in the field. He has served on the scientific editorial board for the American Journal of Ophthalmology, Review of Ophthalmology, Current Opinion in Ophthalmology, Yearbook of Ophthalmology, Retinal Physician, and Retina Today. He is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and an active member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, The Retina Society, The Macula Society, and The American Society of Retina Specialists. He is a former examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology and a recipient of the American Academy of Ophthalmology Achievement, Senior Achievement, Secretariat, and Lifetime Achievement Awards along with the America Society of Retina Specialists Honor and Senior Honor Awards. He was named one of the “150 Top Innovators in Retina” by Ocular Surgery News and selected a Charter Inductee of the Retina Hall of Fame. He also has been listed multiple times through the years as a retina “Top Doctor” in the Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Life, Mainline Today, and South Jersey Magazine.

Dr. Rishi P. Singh MD is a staff surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic Florida, Professor of Ophthalmology at the Lerner College of Medicine, and President of Cleveland Clinic Martin Hospitals in Stuart, FL. He received his bachelors and medical degrees from Boston University and completed his residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Infirmary Harvard Combined Program in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Singh then completed a medical and surgical fellowship at the Cole Eye Institute in Cleveland, Ohio.

He specializes in the treatment of medical and surgical retinal disease such as diabetic retinopathy, retinal detachment, and age-related macular degeneration. Dr. Singh has authored more than 200 peer reviewed publications, books, and book chapters and serves as the principal investigator of numerous national clinical trials advancing the treatment of retinal disease. Dr. Singh is the former president on the Retina World Congress and is on the board of the American Society of Retina Specialists. He is a frequent invited speaker at national and international meeting as well as continuing medical education seminars. Dr. Singh maintains a strong relationship with drug development and commercial entities by serving on scientific advisory boards.

Dr. Singh has been honored with several research recognitions such as the Alpha Omega Alpha Research Award, the American Society of Retina Specialists Senior Honor Award, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology Senior Honor Award.

Richard F. Spaide, MD is a specialist in retinal diseases and has published more than 400 articles in peer-reviewed journals, more than 50 book chapters, and edited several books. He is a graduate of Muhlenberg College and Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He completed his Ophthalmology Residency at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center in New York and his Retina Fellowship at the Manhattan Eye, Ear, and Throat Hospital.

His research interests include macular degeneration, multimodal imaging, optical coherence tomography angiography, and new computer-based rendering techniques to visualize retinal and choroidal diseases anatomy. Dr. Spaide has been cited in multiple Who's Who and Best Doctors lists in the United States. He has received many awards including the Richard and Linda Rosenthal Foundation Award in the Visual Sciences, Prix Soubrane de la Recherche en Ophthalmologie, Award of Merit from the Retina Society, Henkind Award, Coscas Award, Nataraja Pillai Award from the Vitreoretinal Society of India, W. Richard Green MD Award, George Theodossiadis Award from the Greek Retinal Society, Founders Award from the American Society of Retinal Surgeons, Life Achievement Honor Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Simon Gratz Award from Thomas Jefferson University, Roger Johnson Memorial Award for Macular Degeneration Research, J. Donald Gass Award from the Macula Society, the Doyne Medal, the Wacker Prize from the Club Jules Gonin, and the Arnall Patz Medal from the Macula Society. He is a Gold Fellow of the Association for Research and Vision in Ophthalmology.

Charles C. Wykoff, MD, PhD is Director of Research at Retina Consultants of Texas; Chairman of Research, Retina Consultants of America; Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology and Deputy Chair of Ophthalmology, Blanton Eye Institute, Houston Methodist Hospital.

He received his baccalaureate from MIT, PhD from Oxford University while on a Marshall Scholarship, and MD from Harvard Medical School. His basic science research related to cellular adaptation to oxygen availability and VEGF biology contributed to the 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine that was awarded to his PhD supervisor Peter Ratcliffe. He completed retina fellowship at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute where he served as Chief Resident/Co-Director of Ocular Trauma and received a Heed Fellowship and the Ronald G. Michels Award.

He is passionate about translational research and novel ways to accelerate drug and device development programs. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and serves on multiple scientific and medical advisory boards, safety monitoring committees, and global steering committees for endeavors spanning the innovative process from early to late-stage developments. He serves on the ASRS Executive Committee and Board of Directors, is a founding member of the Ophthalmology Retina Editorial Board, and is a past President of the Vit-Buckle Society. He is a member of the NEI Audacious Goals Steering Committee and has been awarded multiple Achievement, Honor and Senior Honor Awards including the ASRS Young Investigator and the AAO Secretariat Awards. His guiding philosophy is to build and strengthen innovative, ethical teams focused on developing new approaches to improving outcomes for blinding diseases.

Usha Chakravarthy is a retina trained ophthalmologist from the UK.  She was Professor of Ophthalmology at Queens University of Belfast and Director for Ophthalmology Services with responsibilty for the retina section at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust until 2015. 

Her interest in research commenced 1986 with her PhD on the therapeutic potential of ionising radiation on intraocular cellular proliferation and  subsequently she worked on the molecular expression of vasoactive peptides in the retina with profiling of gene expression under simulated hyperglycemia in in-vitro and in-vivo studies. Consolidating this work through clinical translational methods she gained the Welcome University Award and large medical research council grants and was appointed full Professor at Queens University in 1999.   She has acted as the study chair for many national and international clinical trials, cohort studies and epidemiological investigations.  She has also chaired advisory groups and was a member of key task forces in retinal diseases  including the International AMD Alliance, Laskar Foundation and Retina International. She was member of the Credentials, Scientific and  awards committee’s for the Macula society and program committee for ARVO,   the German Research Foundation, The French Research Foundation, The Austrian Research Panel. She has delivered multiple eponymous lectures in the UK and abroad.  Some notable awards include the Henkind, Bowman,  Gass and Singerman Awards from the Macula Society, Alan Alderman award and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to Ophthalmology in the UK.  She has been on the adjunct faculty at Genentech/Hoffman La Roche in 2021, the Duke NUS Singapore and she mentors many trainees and faculty across the world.  She is currently the Honorary and Emerita Professor of Ophthalmology and Queens University, and is an ambassador for Invest Northern Ireland.

Frank G. Holz is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Bonn, Germany. His main research interests include the pathogenesis, biomarkers and new therapies for macular and retinal diseases. His major clinical interest is medical and surgical retina. He has a keen interest in innovative retinal imaging technologies and image analysis strategies and founded the Medical imaging Center Bonn (MIB).

He was a scholar of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes), trained at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and the University of Chicago/Pritzker School of Medicine, and passed a fellowhip at Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, with Prof. Alan C. Bird. Professor Holz has been a cofounder of the Priority Program AMD of the German Research Council (DFG) and founded the GRADE Reading Center Bonn to perform digital image analysis in multicentre clinical natural history and interventional trials, and is coordinator of the MACUSTAR study on development of structural, functional and PRO endpoints in intermediate AMD funded by the IMI2 EU program. He is a Board Member of EURETINA, the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG), and of the Club Jules Gonin, Member of the European Academy of Ophthalmology (EAO), the Macula Society, the Gass Club, Editor-in-Chief of Der Ophthalmologe, and serves a reviewer for many peer reviewed journals. He has received numerous awards including the Pro Retina Macular Degeneration Research Award, the Leonhard-Klein Award for Ocular Surgery, the Alcon Research Institute (ARI) Award, the Senior Achievement Award of the AAO and the Jules Gonin Award. He published more than 600 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and is a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Anat Loewenstein, MD, MBA, Professor of Ophthalmology, Chairman of the Division of Ophthalmology, VP Ambulatory Services at the Tel Aviv Medical Center, Sidney Fox Chair of Ophthalmology at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, President of the Israeli Ophthalmological Society and President Elect of the Euretina.

Main field of interest is the investigation of drug administration and toxicity to the retina, early detection of macular degeneration and home monitoring of retinal disease. She has been leading several cutting edge technologies implemented in large scale clinical trials and in clinical setting: the home OCT, a first-of a -kind artificial intelligence-enabled algorithm for monitoring retinal diseases, utilizing an OCT device in the patient's own home, and the development of a technology implementing virtual reality in vitreoretinal surgery in order to replace the standard operating microscope. She also took a pivotal part in the early development of the Port Delivery System - an innovative, FDA approved, intraocular drug delivery system. She serves on advisory boards of most large current pharmaceutical companies.

Published more than 450 papers in peer reviewed journals, and contributed multiple chapters to ophthalmology textbooks.

Serves as the Editor in Chief of the Journal Case Reports in Ophthalmology, is an associate editor of Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science Journal, European Journal of Ophthalmology and of Ophthalmologica.

Has many additional national and international roles as a leader in the field of retinal disease: is a member of the national council of surgery, a member of the Israeli Academy of medicine, is a member in the Academia Ophthalmological Internationalis, leads mentorship groups of ARVO, Euretina and programs sponsored by industry.

Currently serves on the Board of NotalVision and Pulsenmore companies as well as on the board of ESASO (European school for advanced studies in ophthalmology) and previously was a board member at Given Imaging.

Jordi Monés is Director of Institut de la Màcula, Director of the Barcelona Macula Foundation, and Adjunct Professor at John A Moran Eye Center, University of Utah Health, USA.

He earned his degree and PhD cum laude in Medicine and Surgery at the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. He specialized in Ophthalmology at the Centro de Oftalmología Barraquer, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, from 1986-1989. He completed his Research Retina Fellowship at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at Harvard University, Boston, the USA, in 1990 and 1991, and a Clinical Retina Fellowship at the Hospital San José at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico, in 1992.

Since 2007, he has been the Director of the Institut de la Màcula in Barcelona (accredited site of the network of excellence in research, the European Vision Institute) within the Centro Medico Teknon Hospital campus. He is also the Medical Director and one of the founder governors of the Barcelona Macula Foundation: Research for Vision since 2011, whose mission is to fight blindness, supporting and conducting research in retinal diseases that currently have no treatment. He has been an Adjunct Professor at John A Moran Eye Center, University of Utah Health, since February 2023.

His particular research fields are the pathophysiology, imaging, endpoints, biomarkers, clinical trial design, and emerging therapies for AMD, with a specific interest both in the end-stage atrophic and the intermediate form, as well as for retinal dystrophies, regenerative medicine, stem cells, microbiome, and gene therapy.

For the past 20 years, he has been the Principal Investigator in most of the international multicentre clinical trials for treating AMD or conducting phase I–IV and Investigator-driven clinical trials. He is currently participating in or designing clinical trials for exudative AMD, intermediate AMD, atrophic AMD, Stargardt’s disease and Retinitis pigmentosa (RP).

He has worked in regenerative stem-cell therapy in a large animal model, creating a mini-pig model of well-defined atrophy mimicking GA in humans and evaluating the safety of implanting human RPE-derived iPSC cells. Dr. Monés also contributed to the new formulation of retinal progenitor stell cells used by ReNeuron in its Phase II clinical trial in humans. He also participated in the ReNeuron Phase II extension clinical trial, implanting embryonic retinal progenitors in a patient with RP for the first time in Europe.

In 2005, he envisioned encouraging the US biotech Ophthotech to use a drug, that at that time was intended for exudative AMD in combination with anti-VEGF therapy, in patients with atrophic AMD. This led to the conduction of a Phase I trial, and at the Institut de la Màcula, anti-complement therapy was intravitreally administered for the first time in human patients. This was the pioneer seed for the drug currently named avacincaptad pegol, which, after almost 20 years, has shown significant results in preventing the progression of geographic atrophy and visual loss, and it is one of the first and only two drugs approved by the FDA for this condition.

He recently discovered and described retinal restoration/regeneration cases in patients with geographic atrophy after subretinal implantation of RPE-derived embryonic stem cells (Lineage Cell Therapeutics).

Dr Monés, as adjunct Prof. at University of Utah and as scientific advisor of Perceive Biotherapeutics, is currently contributing to the development of a gene therapy for atrophic and intermediate AMD.

He is a member of various research groups, such as the CAM Study Group, and a scientific advisor or member of the Steering Committees of several other pharma and related clinical trials (PerceiveBio, Iveric, Apellis, Novartis, Roche, Kodiak, Genentech, Allegro, EyeBio, Annexon, Aviceda, Nanoscope, Panther Pharmaceuticals) and biotech companies, such as the CellCure/Lineage and ReNeuron in the stem cell regenerative therapy field. He has recently participated as principal investigator in four major projects funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme: the EYERISK, the LITE, the PRO4VIP, and the ADVANCE CAT Consortiums.

He has published over 100 articles in scientific journals and specialist books and has given over 500 presentations, conferences, or talks at international congresses and meetings. He is a member of 12 scientific societies. Prof Monés is one of the 5 European specialists and one of the 40 international specialists that belong to the 4 major retina societies: Macula Society, Retina Society, Club Jules Gonin, and American Society of Retina Specialists.

According to Expertscape.com, which objectively ranks people and Institutions by their expertise in more than 29,000 biomedical topics, Dr. Jordi Monés has ranked #1 in both atrophic and wet AMD in Spain since 2013 and #26 and #25 worldwide.

Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth is Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Eye Hospital, Vienna, Austria. Professor Schmidt-Erfurth’s clinical activities include surgical and medical retina. Her scientific research focuses on the development of innovative diagnostic techniques in retinal imaging with a strong focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and the translational introduction of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies in retinal disease.

She is the founder and director of the Vienna Reading Center (VRC), an independent institution for digital imaging performing image analysis for over 800 clinical sites worldwide and also the founder and leader of the Ophthalmic Image Analysis group (OPTIMA), an interdisciplinary team of computer scientists and retina experts. She was pioneering in bringing photodynamic therapy for neovascular AMD from bench to bedside. In the era of anti-VEGF therapy, she introduced automated AI-based fluid monitoring into clinical practice with regulatory approval. Introducing AI-based OCT analysis into the field of geographic atrophy (GA), has been paradigm-shifting: photoreceptor (PR) integrity loss was shown to present as a primary event and the trigger for lesion progression. Moreover, she introduced the PR/RPE loss ratio as the most relevant predictor for disease progression as well as therapeutic efficacy. These findings have a substantial impact on understanding and managing GA disease with complement inhibition as a novel break-through, and more therapeutic options to follow. She holds several patents for the development of novel imaging analysis methods. She has published more than 590 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals and 14 book chapters. She is a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, vice president of the Academia Europea and a member of the ethics board of the Federation of European Academies of Medicine (FEAM). She has received multiple awards such as the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award of the Macula Society, the Roger Johnson Award for Macular Research of the University of Washington, the Carl Zeiss Research Award by the Fraunhofer Institute/Germany, the Donald Gass Award of the Retina Society, the Donald Gass Medal and the Arnall Patz Award of the Macula Society.

Adnan Tufail is Consultant Ophthalmologist at Moorfields Eye Hospital and Professor of Ophthalmology at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology. He is part of the Retina Research Group at UCL that brings to together vascular biologists, clinicians, and data scientists to improve our understanding of retinal disorders.

He manages patients with complex and rare retinal conditions at Moorfields. He has been awarded substantial research grant funding and directs a number of wide-ranging collaborative programmes of research (e.g MACUSTAR EU consortium for AMD), and the use of big data in ophthalmology, resulting in novel discoveries and a large number of high impact publications.