Women in Retina Section Hosts Events at ASRS Annual Meeting, AVTT Symposium
Women in Retina (WinR) hosted 2 events at the ASRS 34th Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Katherine High, MD, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Spark Therapeutics, Inc, presented an inspiring keynote lecture at the WinR luncheon.
Dr. High has led pioneering bench-to-bedside studies of gene therapy for hemophilia and a series of studies that characterized the human immune response to adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors in a variety of target tissues.
Sixty WinR members gathered at a luncheon at the ASRS Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Pictured: The leadership team—Mina Chung, MD, treasurer; Judy E. Kim, MD, secretary; Jennifer I. Lim, MD, chair; Katherine High, MD, keynote speaker; Alice Lyon, MD, immediate past chair; Pauline Merrill, MD, founding member; Nancy Holekamp, MD, vice chair.
Dr. High told the story of her discovery of gene therapy for hemophilia and of her role in the development of AAV RPE65 gene therapy for Leber’s congenital amaurosis. Her talk was thought provoking, stimulating, and well received.
Also during the ASRS Annual Meeting, members presented compelling cases at the WinR case conference moderated by Caroline Baumal, MD, and Diana Do, MD.
More recently, at the 15th Annual Advanced Vitreoretinal Techniques & Technology (AVTT) Symposium, Chicago-area WinR members mentored WinR fellows; WinR hosted a dinner for them at Chicago’s Seven Lions Restaurant on August 24.
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES
Dr. Lim – ALCON LABORATORIES, INC: Consultant, Honoraria; GENENTECH, INC: Advisory Board, Speaker, Honoraria; HOSPIRA/PFIZER: Consultant, Honoraria; ICON BIOSCIENCE INC: Consultant, Honoraria; LUMENIS LTD: Consultant, Honoraria; QLT, INC: Advisory Board, Other, Unrestricted Research Grant, Honoraria; REGENERON PHARMACEUTICALS, INC: Investigator, Speaker, Grants, Honoraria; SANTEN INC: Advisory Board, Consultant, Honoraria.