Annual meetings

26th Annual Meeting of the Vision Health Research Network (VHRN)

The 26th annual meeting on November 1, 2023, held at the Pierre-Péladeau Amphitheatre of the CHUM in Montreal, was crowned with success thanks to the participation of more than 220 students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, physicians, specialists, etc. In total, more than 110 presentations (oral and poster) took place throughout the day.

Thank you very much for your great participation!

The Network was very pleased to welcome Dr. Krzysztof (Kris) Palczewski, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA, who honored us with a presentation of his latest research. His presentation was entitled: “Eye on genome editing.” Dr. Palczewski is a distinguished biochemist, pharmacologist, and molecular biologist, recognized in particular for his major multidisciplinary scientific contributions to the biology and chemistry of vertebrate vision and to the therapy of retinal diseases.

The Network took the opportunity to recognize the scientific careers and involvement of two RRSV researchers. The Network’s Director, Dr. Michel Cayouette, paid tribute to the Chair of the Scientific Committee for the past seven years, Dr. Patrick Rochette (Université Laval). Dr. Christian Casanova highlighted the considerable contribution of Dr. Hélène Boisjoly as a “builder” of the Network from the very beginning of its existence in 1995.

A section dedicated to the Network’s strategic partners generated considerable interest, stimulating interesting discussions with Network members.
In attendance were:

• Joanne Matsubara – University of British Columbia (UBC) – Research Excellence Cluster in Vision
• Larissa Monitz et Jennifer Jones – Fighting Blindness Canada (FBC)
• Éric Trudel – INO (Institut national d’optique)
• Kathleen Beitz – Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB)
• Mathieu Boulanger – École nationale d’aérotechnique (ENA) /Centre technologique en aérospatiale (CTA) /Cégep Édouard Montpetit)

At the end of the day, the Network rewarded the best student presentations, either oral or poster, by awarding a total of 16 excellence scholarships.

In order to know your appreciation of the Annual Meeting, an evaluation form is available online. All your comments are also welcome:

Subsidies

This activity received an unrestricted educational grant from the following companies:

• Catégorie ARGENT: Alcon, Bayer, Hoffman-La Roche, Sun Pharma
• Catégorie BRONZE: Glaukos, Bausch + Lomb

Accreditation

A certificate of attendance will be given to participants upon request. PHYSICIANS : We invite you to complete the evaluation form and add comments related to your practice – see the “Continuing Specialized Education” section in the form.

The Network would like to thank all the participants, volunteers, evaluators, moderators, presenters and organizers who made this day run smoothly!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us: reseau.vision@ircm.qc.ca

25th Annual Meeting of the Vision Health Research Network (VHRN)

The 25th annual meeting on November 9, 2022, held at the Pierre-Péladeau Amphitheatre of the CHUM in Montreal, was crowned with success thanks to the participation of more than 210 students, post-doctoral fellows, researchers, physicians, specialists, etc.

In total, more than 105 presentations (oral and poster) took place throughout the day.

Thank you very much for your great participation!

The Network took the opportunity to recognize the scientific careers and involvement of three researchers within the RRSV. Dr. Christian Salesse was honored by Dr. Stéphanie Proulx of Université Laval, Dr. Christian Casanova was honored by Dr. Jean-François Bouchard of the School of Optometry – Université de Montréal, and Dr. Pierre Lachapelle was honored by the Network Director, Dr. Michel Cayouette, and Dr. Jacqueline Orquin. Dr. Lachapelle was also named “Member Emeritus of the RRSV.”

We were honored to attend the presentation of our keynote speaker, Dr Michele Ruccifrom the University of Rochester (New York, USA) entitled: “Seeing space through time.” Dr. Rucci is a leading researcher in the field of computational mechanisms of visual function and cognitive neuroscience. He has implemented novel tracking systems between the head, eyes, and visual display as well as the design of efficient machine vision systems.

At the end of the day, the Network rewarded the best student presentations, either oral or poster, by awarding a total of 14 certificates and scholarships.

To find out your appreciation of the Annual Meeting, an evaluation form is available online here (please respond before December 9)

Journal « VISION » Journal

All interested presenters will be invited to participate in the special edition of the Journal Vision in conjunction with the 25th Annual Meeting. As announced at the meeting, all RRSV members will receive a 50% discount on publication fees for an original or journal article. Guest editors for the special edition: Drs. Dave Saint-Amour and Alexandre Reynaud.

Special Edition Guest Editors: Drs. Dave Saint-Amour and Alexandre Reynaud

Subsides

• Catégorie OR : Alcon, Abbvie
• Catégorie ARGENT: Hoffman-La Roche, Santen, Sun Pharma
• Catégorie BRONZE: Glaukos

Accréditation

A certificate of attendance will be given to participants upon request.

PHYSICIANS: We invite you to complete the evaluation form and add comments related to your practice – see the “Continuing Specialized Education” section of the form.

The Network would like to thank all the participants, volunteers, evaluators and organizers who made this day run smoothly!

Vision Health Research Network 20-21 Virtual Meetings

News – COVID-19: As the 25th Annual Meeting of the RRSV could not be held in person in June 2020, the Network offered you a series of virtual meetings which took place over a period of 6 months.

All programs

The interactive schedule (access to summaries) of all meetings can be found on the Fourwaves Platform

The hybrid format – Zoom Conference and Fourwaves Platform – allowed the Network to present a total of 36 oral presentations and 69 poster presentations (student presentations and posters from the RRSV Common Infrastructures). In addition, 18 presentations focused on age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Special thanks to our 25 evaluators who judged these presentations, allowing the Network to award 32 prizes to Network students for a total of $6,150.

Thank you for your great participation!

Guest Speakers

Accreditation

The virtual meetings have been accredited by the Université de Montréal Accreditation Bureau for Quebec Physicians. Certificates will be issued after the final meeting.

You will find other important details on our partner’s website: Fourwaves

Additional documentation

Mandatory for all speakers

Oral presentations only

Attach this slide to the beginning of your presentation (declaration of your conflicts)

Journal ANNALS of eye science

Mandatory if publication authorized by the main author – must be completed by all authors

If you are having difficulty opening the journal’s COI disclosure form, refer to this link and follow the instructions: ICMJE, http://www.icmje.org/conflicts-of-interest/

24th Annual Meeting of the Vision Health Research Network

The 24th annual meeting of the RRSV, held on March 18, 2019, at Université Laval, was a great success thanks to the participation of more than 200 students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, physicians, specialists, and other professionals involved in vision health research. This meeting allowed our recently appointed director, Michel Cayouette, to introduce himself to the members of the Network present at the meeting. For the occasion, Dr. Cayouette paid tribute to our outgoing director, Dr. Isabelle Brunette, who completed a 6-year term as director of the Network in 2018.

Network students and researchers presented more than 40 oral presentations and more than 60 poster presentations.

For the occasion, our guest speaker, Dr. Shigeru Kinoshita, professor at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, did us the honor of presenting his most recent work (biography below).

The popular science competition “My Research at a Glance” was a huge success among our members. Six students from different academic levels (MSc, PhD, and MD students) managed to popularize their research in less than 3 minutes! Congratulations to our participants!

We would like to thank the five speakers for their involvement in the “Information and Research Strategies for Residents” section. Thanks to them, ophthalmology residents were able to learn more about clinical research as an option in their academic curriculum.

At the end of the day, the Network awarded 15 prizes for the best presentations, two of which were presented by the “Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Rehabilitation of Metropolitan Montreal” (CRIR).

For a second year, a special edition of the journal “Annals of Eye Science” gathering authorized abstracts is now available. Link to the special edition (December 2019) of the journal and the editorial,l’éditorial, signed by Michel Cayouette.

Guest Speaker

Dr. Shigeru Kinoshita, a clinical researcher, graduated from Osaka University School of Medicine in 1974. In 1992, he was Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology at Kyoto Prefectural Medical University. Following his resignation from the Chair of Ophthalmology in March 2015, in April of that year, he was elected Professor and Chairman of Advanced Medical Science and Technology in Ophthalmology at Kyoto Prefectural Medical University. He has always worked as a distinguished clinical scientist.

In the early 1980s at Harvard Medical School, in collaboration with Dr. Richard A. Thoft, he established the concept of centripetal movement of the corneal epithelium and his research has emphasized the importance of the limbal epithelium. Over the past 40 years, his primary interest has been the translational search for new therapeutic modalities for severe corneal diseases. Following this path, his group has recently established a cultured mucosal epithelial stem cell transplantation system for the treatment of severe ocular surface disorders, such as Stevens-Johnson syndrome and corneal endothelial cell transplantation for bullous keratopathy. His group has also demonstrated the clinical efficacy of a topical application of Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK) inhibitor for partial endothelial dysfunction, aiming to develop new treatments for corneal endothelial dysfunction.

Dr. Kinoshita is a recipient of the Alcon Research Institute Award in 1999, the ARVO Gold Award in 2009, the Charles D. Kelman Innovation Award, ASCRS 2015, and has received several lecture awards (Castroviejo Medal Lecturer 2008 from the Cornea Society, Doyne Memorial Lecturer Award from the Oxford Congress of Ophthalmology in 2011 in the UK, The Coster Lecture Award from the Cornea Society of Australia and New Zealand in 2017, Friedenwal Award at ARVO in 2016 and the David Easty Lecture Award at Bowman’s Club in 2017). He was a member of the ARVO Cornea Section Program Committee from 1996 to 1999, a member of the ARVO Cornea Section Board of Directors from 2006 to 2011, and a Vice President of ARVO in 2010-2011.

Conference title: Advanced Therapies for Corneal Endothelial Dysfunction

The Network thanks all the participants, volunteers, evaluators and organizers who made the day run smoothly.

23rd Annual Meeting of the Vision Health Research Network

The 23rd annual meeting on November 7, 2017, held at CHU-Sainte-Justine, was a success thanks to the participation of more than 250 students, post-doctoral fellows, researchers, doctors, specialists, etc.

This year, thanks to your continued involvement, we were able to achieve an impressive number of presentations (posters and oral presentations combined), namely 150, reaching a peak since the creation of the network’s annual meetings. At the end of this day, we were able to award 16 prizes to reward the best oral and poster presentations (link to the winners).

The annual meeting was preceded by the first International Symposium on Retinal and Choroidal Angiogenesis, organized by Dr. Sylvain Chemtob, and was also very well attended. Around one hundred participants attended to attend presentations by leading researchers in the field.

For the occasion, Dr. Anne Eichman, internationally renowned professor at Yale University, was the guest of honor at both events to present her most recent results (biography below).

Novelty

Following the initiative of Ms. Tianwei Ellen Zhou, medical student and president of the RRSV student committee, the journal “Annals of Eye Science” partnered with the event. A special edition (March 2018) is now available online and includes the abstracts authorized by the authors presented at the Symposium and the annual meeting. The preface is signed by Drs. Isabelle Brunette, Sylvain Chemtob and Tianwei Ellen Zhou.

Dr. Anne Eichmann is a renowned vascular biologist who has made numerous important breakthroughs in the field of retinal neovascularization. A professor of cardiology at Yale University and a faculty member of the Paris Center for Cardiovascular Research, she has also served on the INSERM Scientific Research Council, the European Research Council, the Lefoulon Delalande Foundation Grants Council, and on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, including Physiology Reviews and Endothelium. Following a master’s degree at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, she earned a PhD in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Paris XIII, followed by postdoctoral training in the Nicole le Douarin laboratory.

Anne Eichmann’s research focuses on discovering and characterizing factors that control blood vessel development, as well as understanding how the vascular and nervous systems influence each other during development. Her work, focusing on the molecular and cellular relationships between the nervous and vascular systems, has led to a better understanding of the mechanisms governing retinal vascularization. Among her important discoveries are the demonstration of the role of the Slit2 protein in retinal vascular development and the prevention of pathological retinal neovascularization. Her research has led to the publication of numerous scientific articles in prestigious journals such as Nature, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, Blood, and Nature Medicine.

Dr. Eichmann has been honored with numerous research awards throughout her career, including those from the Liliane Bettencourt Foundation for Life Sciences, the Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite, the Inserm Research Prize and the Jean Bernard Prize from the Medical Research Foundation.

Conference title: New approaches for the prevention of pathological retinal neovascularization

The Network thanks all the participants, volunteers, evaluators and organizers who made the day run smoothly.

The network thanks you for being there in such large numbers!

22nd Annual Meeting of the FRQS Vision Health Research Network

The 22nd annual meeting of the RRSV took place on November 4, 2016, at Collège André-Grasset in Montreal. This event brought together 252 students, researchers, clinicians, and other professionals involved in vision health research. For the occasion, we welcomed a renowned guest speaker, Dr. Denis Pelli, who presented his work (biography below). The program also included 45 oral presentations and 83 posters. Congratulations to all the presenters for their excellent work!

Dr. Denis Pelli has been a professor of psychology and neuroscience at New York University since 1995. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Vision and Plos ONE. He began his studies in applied mathematics at Harvard University and later earned a PhD in the physiology of vision at the University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Campbell and Robson.

Dr. Pelli’s current research focuses on object and letter recognition, visual clutter, and the experience of beauty. Dr. Pelli is recognized for his many seminal discoveries and theories in the field of vision research, as well as for the development of several tools, such as the Psychotoolbox, the QUEST algorithm, and the Pelli-Robson scale. During his career, Dr. Pelli has published several articles in prestigious journals including Nature and Science. His remarkable contribution to vision science has laid the foundations of our modern understanding of object recognition.

He is a recipient of the Leadership Award/New Focus Prize from the American Optical Society.

His talk focused on using psychophysics and machine learning to understand object recognition and detection.

The Network thanks all participants, as well as the team of volunteers who made the day run smoothly.

21st Annual Meeting of the FRQS Vision Health Research Network

The 21st annual meeting of the RRSV took place on November 6, 2015, at Université Laval in Quebec City. This event brought together 220 students, researchers, clinicians, and other professionals involved in vision health research. Two keynote speakers presented their cutting-edge research and achievements, Drs. Jeffrey L. Goldberg and Margareta Claesson (biographies below). The program included 37 oral presentations, 70 posters, and 9 workshops and focus groups. Congratulations to all presenters for their excellent work!

The keynote speaker for the plenary session was Dr. Jeffrey L. Goldberg. Dr. Goldberg is an ophthalmologist and Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University in California. His clinical practice focuses on patients requiring medical or surgical intervention for glaucoma and other retinal and optic nerve diseases, as well as cataracts. His research focuses on neuroprotection and regeneration of retinal ganglion cells and other retinal neurons. In addition, his laboratory develops novel stem cell and nanotherapeutic approaches for ocular treatment.

Dr. Goldberg received his B.S. magna cum laude from Yale University and his M.D. from Stanford University, where he made important discoveries about optic nerve regeneration failure. He completed his clinical training in ophthalmology and then in glaucoma at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and was a Heed Foundation Fellow. He was named Scientist of the Year in 2010 by the Hope for Vision Foundation and received the Cogan Award from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology in 2012. He was elected in 2010 to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, an honor society of physician scientists. He directs an NIH-funded laboratory and oversees research in the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of California, San Diego. His goal is to integrate scientific discoveries into medical practice for application to patients. He has already developed significant experience with the implementation of clinical trials, having successfully completed two Investigational New Drugs with the FDA for Phase I trials for neuroprotection and optic nerve regeneration.

His lecture focused on recent technological advances applied to optic nerve regeneration in the context of glaucoma and other optic neuropathies, and on cell therapy in corneal endothelial diseases.

The guest speaker for the Cornea and Anterior Segment session was Dr. Margareta Claesson. Dr. Claesson has been a surgical ophthalmologist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital since 1979 and a senior consultant since 1996. Her main interests are corneal diseases and corneal surgery. She is the medical director of the Cornea Clinic and the medical director of the Eye Bank at Sahlgrenska Hospital. She is responsible for the Swedish Cornea Register, which she founded in 1996, and is president of the Swedish Cornea Surgeon Society, which she also founded in 1994.

Dr. Margareta Claesson completed her medical and doctoral studies at the University of Gothenburg Medical School, Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research interests are corneal transplantation outcomes and factors influencing graft survival and visual outcome. She was awarded the Serving Sister of the Order of St. John for her work at St. John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem.

His presentation focused on the establishment and maintenance of a corneal transplant registry for clinical and research purposes.

The Network thanks all participants, as well as the team of volunteers who made the day run smoothly.

20th Annual Meeting of the FRQS Vision Health Research Network

The 20th annual meeting of the RRSV was held on November 28, 2014 at the Montreal Hilton. This event brought together nearly 300 students, researchers, clinicians and other professionals working in the field of vision health. The day’s program included 46 oral presentations and 96 posters.

Guest speaker Gislin Dagnelie, associate professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, presented recent discoveries in the field of retinal implants. These state-of-the-art devices offer hope for blind people to partially regain their sight.

The Network congratulates all the presenters for their excellent work. The Network would also like to give special thanks to the team of volunteers who made the day run smoothly.

We look forward to seeing you in large numbers at the 21st Annual Meeting of the RRSV which will take place on November 6, 2015 at Laval University in Quebec.

19th Annual Meeting of the FRQS Vision Health Research Network

The 19th annual meeting of the FRQS Vision Health Research Network was held on November 22, 2013, at the Hilton Bonaventure in Montreal. Once again this year, this day broke its participation records and we are very proud of it.

Particular emphasis was placed on the new research program in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that the Network is responsible for setting up. The afternoon sessions covered the different aspects of this issue, from the most fundamental to the most clinical. The expertise of the guest speaker, Martin Friedlander, MD, PhD, Scripps Research Institute, CA, helped to elaborate on the subject of stem cells, one of the very promising aspects for the future of AMD treatment.

Finally, the students also participated actively by submitting various proposals on how to develop a structured research program on AMD in Quebec. We would like to congratulate our students for the quality of their various interventions and their numerous presentations throughout the day. Several of them were awarded a prize for this purpose.

18th Annual Meeting of the FRQS Vision Health Research Network

The 18th annual meeting of the FRQS Vision Health Research Network was held on October 19, 2012, at the Hilton Bonaventure in Montreal. This day was a success and we thank you warmly. Together, we demonstrated that Quebec is an important player in the field of vision health research by bringing together 300 participants who came to listen to 151 presentations (oral and poster) that mainly involved students.

We would like to congratulate our students for the quality of their presentations, which made this day so interesting and stimulating.