Marius Ueffing, Professor, Dr. rer.nat.
Head of the Division of Molecular Biology of Retinal Degenerations, Head of the Core Facility for Medical Bioanalytics, Director of the Institute for Ophthalmic Research.

Topic: Systems Level Investigation on AMD: Insights from the European Eye-Risk Project

Elise Heon, MD, FRCS(C)

Dr. Héon is an Ophthalmologist and the Henry Brent Chair in Innovative Pediatric Ophthalmology Research.

Topic: Pediatric specificities in trials

Masayo Takahashi M.D., Ph.D.
President, Vision Care Inc.

After she received her M.D. and Ph.D. from Kyoto University, worked as an ophthalmologist in the Kyoto University Hospital. Discovered the potential of stem cells as a tool for retina therapy when she moved to the Salk Institute, U.S. She joined RIKEN in 2006, her team launched a pilot clinical study using iPS cells first in human in 2013. She started a new career, a president of a start up company; Vision Care Inc., to proceed implement clinical therapy.

Her research interests are Regenerative medicine and Retinal degeneration.

Prof. Dr. Eberhart Zrenner
Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology

Professor Zrenner is Head of Pathophysiology of Vision at the Institute for Ophthalmic Research of the University of Tuebingen, Germany. His research interests include retinal physiology and pathophysiology, neuro-ophthalmology, ophthalmogenetics and retinal prosthetics, He has made numerous contributions to basic science, clinical diagnosis and treatment in inherited retinal dystrophies.

He obtained his MD degree in 1972 at the Technical University of Munich and subsequently worked at the Max-Planck-Institute, at the National Eye Institute, NIH, and at the University Eye Hospital in Munich. He became full professor and Chairman at University Eye Hospital in Tuebingen in 1989 where he founded the Institute for Ophthalmic Research, including a special clinic for hereditary retinal degenerations. He has received numerous grants and awards, two honorary Doctoral Degrees and has published approximately 625 peer-reviewed papers (http://www.eye-tuebingen.de/zrenner ), cited 30.317 times (with h-Index of 86; Google Scholar).