A highly accomplished vision scientist and expert in inherited retinal degenerative disease will be the keynote speaker at the 2024 George Kambara, MD Vision Science Symposium on Friday, April 12, 2024.
Budd Tucker, PhD is the Howard Ruby Chair for Regenerative Ophthalmology, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine. He directs the Tucker Stem Cell Laboratory, and his principal research focus is Inherited retinal degenerative diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa (RP), Leber Congenital Amaurosis (LCA), Batten Disease, Usher Syndrome, BBS, and Best Disease, collectively a major cause of incurable blindness in the western world. Currently, his lab is involved in the development of two major therapeutic approaches for this class of disease: gene replacement therapy and cell replacement therapy.
His talk is titled “Using Patient Derived Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Model and Treat Inherited Retinal Disease.”
In addition to Dr. Tucker’s keynote address, the event will feature presentations from local and regional speakers, including:
- John Fingert, MD, PhD from the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Iowa’s Carver College of Medicine
- Gregory Schwartz, PhD from the Winberg College of Arts and Ciences at Northwestern University
- Deepak Shukla, PhD from the University of Illinois College of Medicine
Additional presentations will be made by vision researchers from the UW–Madison campus.
For more information and to register: https://www.ophth.wisc.edu/events/kambara-symposium/
The annual George Kambara, MD Vision Sciences Symposium is supported by the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences George Kambara Education Fund and McPherson Eye Research Institute.