The IRRF recently collaborated with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences by sponsoring the second annual Southeastern Vision Research Conference (SEVRC) to celebrate and share excellence in vision science. The two-day seminar held in Birmingham brought together vision scientists from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Emory University to foster an exchange of ideas among the groups, each with its own unique strengths. The next SEVRC will be held in 2020 at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Constance “Connie” Cepko, PhD, Bullard Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School, and a pioneering developmental and molecular neurobiologist, gave the keynote lecture, “Cell Fate Determination in the Retina and Strategies to Prolong Vision Using Gene Therapy.” Christine A. Curcio, PhD and Alecia Gross, PhD, UAB members of the program committee, noted, “collaboration and communication is the road forward on finding ways to preserve and restore good vision.”
This year’s conference had a record number of attendees with 195 registrants, 87 poster presentations, and 22 speakers.