This year’s medal recipient and guest speaker is Professor Botond Roska (Institute for Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB), and Faculty of Science, University of Basel, Switzerland). Professor Roska will deliver a lecture entitled 'Restoring vision with optogenetics therapy'.
A reception will follow this event. All are welcome to attend.
* This meeting is in-person, however, a link for Teams can be obtained by emailing Deborah Mitchell d.mitchell@qub.ac.uk.
About the guest speaker
Professor Roska is founding Director and Senior Group Leader at the Institute for Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel (IOB) and Professor at the Faculty of Medicine and at the Faculty of Science at the University of Basel, Switzerland. He earned his MD in 1995 at the Semmelweis University of Medicine, Budapest, and his PhD from the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2002.
Roska's laboratory aims to find ways to repair visual dysfunction by investigating the function of the retina, thalamus, and cortex at the level of cell types and circuits, and using this knowledge to understand disease mechanisms and to develop treatments. Roska's work has led to robust technology for cell-type targeted gene therapy and vision restoration in retinas. In a breakthrough study published in Nature Medicine in May 2021, Roska and colleagues reported the first blind patient who partially regained vision. They demonstrated the feasibility of partial vision restoration using optogenetic therapy and engineered goggles. His experimental approach is interdisciplinary, combining physiological, molecular, viral and computational approaches to reveal the structure and function of retinal circuits.
The Barcroft Lecture
The Barcroft Lecture was established by the Wellcome Trust after the passing of Professor Henry Barcroft to honour his contribution to medical research. The lecture is awarded by the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences at Queen's University Belfast for major contributions to research in the fields of physiology or medicine.
