We are thrilled to invite you to an exclusive Fighting Blindness Canada reception in celebration of your support of vision research.
After more than three long years apart, we are delighted to come together in-person for an unforgettable evening of inspiring conversations with vision researchers.
Friday, May 5, 2023 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Teatro Restaurant – The Opera Room Private Space
200 – 8th Avenue SE
Calgary, AB
Invitation only.
RSVP by April 24, 2023
Jaime Alexanderson
416-360-4200 x 257
jalexanderson@fightingblindness.ca
FEATURING Guest Speakers
Matthew D. Benson MD, MSc, FRCSC | Assistant Professor, University of Alberta.
Larissa Moniz, PhD | Director, Research and Mission Programs, Fighting Blindness Canada.
About Our Speakers
Dr. Lesley Everett, MD, PhD
Having completed my MD and PhD at the University of Michigan I went on to the University of California, San Francisco to complete my residency in Ophthalmology. Also having completed fellowships in both Medical Retina at the University of Michigan and Ophthalmic Genetics at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, OR. My long-term career goal is to be an academic physician-scientist with a basic and translational research laboratory and complementary clinical practice focusing on genetic eye diseases and retinal-vascular development.
Given my training and background in Human Genetics and Ophthalmology, a career in ophthalmic genetics and medical retina represents the perfect combination of innovative and rapidly evolving basic research tools (CRISPR, next-generation sequencing, gene therapy), fascinating physiology, and rewarding patient care. I look forward to further developing and advancing an inter-disciplinary basic research program aimed at improving our understanding of the vascular development of the retina and brain, which has important potential clinical implications for the treatment of disorders characterized by retinal hypovascularization (retinopathy of prematurity, familial exudative vitreoretinopathy, microcephaly and chorioretinopathy, etc.) but also for the possible future identification of novel therapeutic targets to treat abnormal retinal neovascularization and the prevention of blinding eye disease from much more common diseases such as exudative age-related macular degeneration and proliferative diabetic retinopathy.
Matthew D. Benson MD, MSc, FRCSC, University of Alberta
Dr. Matthew Benson is a clinician-scientist in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Alberta. He currently holds a Bayer Professorship in Translational Research in Ophthalmology appointment. Dr. Benson completed his graduate studies and ophthalmology residency training at the University of Alberta. He then completed fellowship training in ocular genetics at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health. His clinical interests include inherited eye diseases and strabismus. He also runs a fundamental research lab that investigates disease mechanisms of inherited retinal disorders.
LARISSA mONIZ, PhD, Fighting Blindness Canada
Larissa joined Fighting Blindness Canada in December 2019. She has a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Toronto and continued her research in the UK at UCL. Larissa has worked in research and knowledge translation in at a number of health charities both in the UK and Canada, most recently at Prostate Cancer Canada. At Fighting Blindness Canada Larissa’s team works to deliver on the mission of the organization which is to fund research towards treatments to preserve and restore vision, ensure that all Canadians have access to appropriate vision care and to provide support and information to individuals living with vision loss.
Access an accessible version of our visionary reception invite here.
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