Avril Daly

Avril Daly is CEO of the patient-led global umbrella organisation, Retina International, which represents the voice of charities and foundations concerned with the promotion of retina research and related health policy in 43 countries.

Dr. Nikolas Pontikos

Dr. Nikolas Pontikos is a group leader at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital who is working with his team at the Pontikos Lab and the Moorfields Reading Centre on creating Eye2Gene, an AI software that can help doctors to better diagnose patients with inherited retinal disease. His background is in computer science, bioinformatics and machine learning. 

Jelena Malinina

Jelena Malinina is a Data Director in EURORDIS – the European Organisation for Rare Diseases. Her role is to lead work on data and represent rare disease patient voice in digitalisation of healthcare. Prior to joining EURORDIS, Jelena worked for the European Consumer Organisation, the World Health Organisation, healthcare consultancy, patient organisations and governmental public health organisation.

Through her work she developed expertise in healthcare digitalisation, personal health data protection and security, artificial intelligence, medical devices, healthcare systems innovation and public health advocacy. Jelena is a member of the European Commission’s ehealth Stakeholder Working Group and a member of the External Advisory Board of the HealthData@EU Pilot project.

Jelena holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Administration from the Mykolas Romeris University in Lithuania and a Master Degree in European Studies from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden.

Christina Fasser

After her primary education, she worked for 7 years as an advertisement manager in different international advertising agencies. From 1978 to 1990, Christina worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich on different projects designed to the developing world, especially in the field of Food Science.

Affected by Retinitis pigmentosa she got involved in the Swiss RP Society (today named Retina Suisse) as a founding member in 1979 and from 1986 to 2002 as its president and from 1992 to 2015 as its CEO. In 1992 she was elected president of Retina International (former International Retinitis Pigmentosa Association). In this capacity she participated in promoting research on a national and international level and coordinating the efforts made by the individual countries. After her resignation as chair of Retina International in September 2020, she continues as an advisor and advocate.

Dr. Nicolás Cuenca

Full Professor in the Department of Physiology, Genetics and Microbiology. He leads the research group Neurobiology of the Visual System and Therapy of Neurodegenerative Diseases at University of Alicante, Spain. His research is dedicated to the understanding of the functional organization of the mammalian retina. His research interest is focused on the disease mechanisms and therapeutic treatments for retinal degenerative diseases using animal models. His work attempts to understand more about retinal degenerative diseases like retinitis pigmentosa, glaucoma and macular degeneration, and provide tactics to design various therapies. Our research uses a combination of methods beginning with behavioral and morphological analyses and followed by electrophysiological and molecular studies He has published 136 papers in prestigious journals in the field of Ophthalmology and Neuroscience and has presented more than 300 abstracts in scientific meetings. He is editor and reviewer of several international scientific journals and has received numerous international awards for his research work and scientific photographs. The multidisciplinary approach of our team made possible the collaboration on several scientific projects with universities and companies in the United States and Europe.

Dr. Nicolás Cuenca dará la sesión titulado Avances en el tratamiento de enfermedades neurodegenerativas de la retina. Dr. Cuenca ha trabajado por más de diez años en el departamento de fisología, genética, y microbiología de la Universidad de Alicante en España. Junto con Dra. Victoria Maneu, darán la charla de suma importancia para pacientes con baja visión. No se lo querán perder.