Where? Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London
When? 2nd December, 2022, 12.30 to 7.15pm – followed by a social until late

European Association for Vision and Eye Research is seeking a
Secretary General to commence February 2023, for a five-year term

Dear Colleagues,

We are looking for a new European Association for Vision and Eye Research Secretary General to commence February 2023, for a five-year term.

Personal Specification:
We are looking for an energetic, enthusiastic, committed, and passionate individual who would relish the opportunity to shape the future of EVER and work towards maintaining a vibrant and flourishing association.

This is an excellent opportunity to mould and influence the EVER association. There is plenty of opportunity to expand networks and engage with researchers and clinicians and companies. The role is as big as the individual wants to make it. Routine, day to day operational needs are ably supported by OIC.

The individual should ideally have some knowledge and experience of EVER by having been involved in the past as a Board Member, or if not, at least an active Member, with evidence of commitment to their section.

The candidate must be a paid EVER member of good standing.

Summary of Role:
To support the EVER President, Treasurer, Programme Secretary and OIC in discussions, decision making and occasional initiatives.
To compile agendas for twice yearly Board and annual General Assembly meetings.
To review the minutes of these meetings and liase with Board members and all members on some actions.
To advise other executive board members time to time as required on operational decisions.

Informal enquiries can be made to Prof Marcela Votruba (email: votrubam@cf.ac.uk).

Candidates for General Secretary are nominated by a subcommittee of the Board, comprising, the current President, President Elect, and immediate Past President and Treasurer and Programme Secretary, and then elected via mail ballot by the general membership.

Candidates nominated by the EVER sub-committee, will be asked to provide a one-page CV and a 250-word Expression of Interest.

This will be put on the EVER website and a ballot launched. An election is held balloting all EVER Members (either face-to-face or by email/ electronic).

Dates, timelines and deadlines to be confirmed.

Best wishes,
Marcela

Here is the Report of the UK-EGG Annual Conference 2022, held in Bristol on the Friday 17th June, 2022 at the Watershed, One Canon’s Road, Harbourside, Bristol BS1 5TX

UK-EGG 2022 Report

17th June; The Watershed, Bristol, UK and Virtual

Chloe M. Stanton, Co-Director of Seminars for UK-EGG, MRC Human Genetics Unit, Institute of Genetics and Cancer, University of Edinburgh

The UK Eye Genetics Group (UK-EGG) annual meeting offers an opportunity to catch up with the latest developments in eye genetics and with others with a shared interest in the genetics of eye disease. Delegates including ophthalmic clinicians, clinical geneticists, genetic counsellors and research scientists, from across the UK and further afield, attended the 2022 meeting in person or virtually.

Reflecting the diverse and growing membership of UK-EGG, speakers highlighted a wide range of research in ophthalmic genetics. During an exciting session on population eye genetics, Dr Emma Baple shared insights into inherited eye disorders gleaned from community studies, before Profs. Jeremy Guggenheim and Cathy Williams described recent developments in myopia genetics. Gene therapy proved to be a hot topic: Prof. Patrick Yu Wai Man gave an update on this approach to treat Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, and Prof. Dominik Fischer provided a breaking news update on the real-world safety and effectiveness of voretigene neparvovec in the PERCEIVE study. Elegant molecular genetics also featured. Dr Jörn Lakowski described using retinal organoids to model retinal development and disease. Prof. Davide Pisani gave a molecular overview of the remarkable evolutionary history of vision. The keynote speaker was renowned genetic epidemiologist Prof. George Davey Smith, whose illuminating talk explained how Mendelian randomization can help to identify modifiable causes of disease in conditions including age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

UK-EGG 2022 was held in partnership with the British Society of Clinical Electrophysiology and Vision (BriSEV). Dr Ruth Hamilton, President of International Society for Clinical Electrophysiology of Vision (ISCEV) and Secretary of BriSEV, reviewed the important role of visual electrophysiology in diagnosis and phenotyping of eye disease, and highlighted elearning programmes available. The meeting also featured inspiring talks and discussion relating to patient experience, with Dr Andy Flack introducing the audience to an arts/ability project with vision impaired people, and Dr Amanda Churchill hosting a patient perspective.

These talks stimulated plenty of discussion, as did excellent poster sessions, early career researcher talks and clinical case studies. The poster prize was awarded to Weijen Tan from Great Ormond Street Hospital (Outcomes and challenges of Voretigene Neparvovec gene therapy in the paediatric population). Best oral research presentation was won by Ana Villaplana-Velasco from the University of Edinburgh (Fine-mapping of retinal vascular complexity loci identifies Notch signalling regulatory variants supporting a shared mechanism with myocardial infarction outcomes).

Special thanks to Dr Denize Atan (Co-Chair, UK-EGG) and the UK-EGG team for organising a fantastic annual meeting in Bristol, and to event sponsors Chiesi Group, Leadiant and Novartis for their support.

Don’t miss next year’s meeting in Edinburgh!

Here are a selection of photographs from the UK-EGG Annual Conference Bristol 2022