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Young Researcher Vision Camp 2019

As in the previous years the Young Researcher Vision Camp in its 2019 edition from July 12th-14th, 2019 was a great success. More than 120 young and enthusiastic future scientists and clinicians discussed in ten scientific sessions, three keynote speeches and three educational sessions a huge variety of actual topics in Vision Research and Ophthalmology.

The keynote lectures were held by Hendrik Scholl from the IOB in Basel on the topic “Emerging Therapies for Inherited Retinal Dystrophies”, followed by Jeffrey Diamond, NIH in Bethesda on “Signal Processing in the Retina”. “Catching science in language: a short introduction to patent law” was the topic of the third lecture by Stijn van Dongen, NLO, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

The sessions started with “My Fun in Myopia Research”, chaired by Arne Ohlendorf; “Imaging the Eye” by Christina Schwarz; “The RPE and its Role in Vision” by Helen May-Simera; “Cell Death Mechanism in Retinal Degeneration” by Francois Paquet-Durand; “Retinal Circuits in the Healthy and Diseased Retina” by Timm Schubert; “Photoreceptor degeneration and therapeutic approaches”; by Jerome Roger; “Application of Virtual Reality for Ophthalmology and Vision Science” by Alexander Leube; “Post-translational modification and epigenetic signaling in the retina” by Martial Mbefo; “Computational Tools to Understand the Retina and its Processes” by Daniele Dell’Orco and the “Young DOG @ Vision Camp” chaired by Sven Schnichels. Each session consisted by four young and promising PhD students explaining their research field.

The Poster Session

Again, the interactive poster session (“Saturday Night Fever”) was a special event on this year’s Vision Camp with a broad spectrum of excellent contributions by the young researchers. Special thanks go to ZEISS Vision International said Thomas Wheeler-Schilling, CEO of the European Vision Institute and organizer of the camp, for their generous support of the Young Researcher Vision Camp 2019 and the offer of the renown poster award.

Claudia Ingensiep from the Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen in Germany presented her poster on the “Establishment of a hypoxia model for the MEA-based analysis of the electrical activity in murine retinae”. Sándor Lovas presented his work on “Quantification of Cell Death in Long-Term Organotypic Culture of the Adult Human Retina”.

Sandor is from the Department of Anatomy, Histology and Embryology at the Semmelweis University, Budapest in Hungary. Daniel Pawliczek presented his poster with the title “Retinal dysplasia and cortical cataracts in neonatal mice exposed to ionizing radiation reduce visual acuity”.

Daniel was representing the Helmholtz-Zentrum München, Institut of Developmental Genetics, Eye Diseases.

Yiyi Chen got a special award for her innovative designed poster with the title “Studies into the energy metabolism of the retina”. Yiyi represented the Institute for Ophthalmic Research in Tuebingen, Germany from the group of Prof. F. Paquet-Durand and showed an unusual, excellent designed poster which the jury convinced to establish for the first time a special recognition award.

ZEISS Poster Awardees at the Young Researcher Vision Camp 2019

Claudia Ingensiep
Sándor Lovas
Daniel Pawliczek
Yiyi Chen
The ZEISS Poster Award Session at the Young Researcher Vision Camp 2019: Dr. Alexander Leube, chairman of the jury (Carl Zeiss Vision International GmbH, ZEISS Vision Science Lab), Daniel Pawliczek, Claudia Ingensiep, Sándor Lovas, Yiyi Chen and Ulrike Wittkop, vice chairwoman of the jury (from left to right).

Educational sessions and more

Educational sessions were given by Prof. Heiko von der Leyen from the Medical University Hannover, Head Clinical Trial Centre on the topic “On the importance of clinical trials”. Dr. Abouzar Eslami, Head of Translational Research Lab – Carl Zeiss Meditec AG gave a lecture on the “Artificial Intelligence in Ophthalmology” and last not least Prof. Nils Högsdahl, Dean of the HdM Stuttgart spoke to the topic “How to build your own company?”

Further highlights were the exciting ranger tour by night. The Upper Danube Valley was one of the last areas of Germany from around 170 years, from which the Lynx disappeared. The rare big cat could be admired in Baden-Württemberg thereafter only in zoos and animal park. This changed for the first time in 2005 when a lynx spent a year in the Upper Danube Valley, but then disappeared again. Since then, there have been regular evidences of lynxes and at least three male lynxes have been observed for longer periods of time.

A few impressions

Castle Wildenstein

The location of the Young Researcher Vision camp was again the Wildenstein Castle, cliff high above the Danube. The view: sensational. The 11th century castle brings explorers to the scene. Who wouldn't want to stay in a castle for once? To listen out for ghosts at night? To look for secret passages during the day? Wildenstein Castle has secret passages. And maybe even ghosts, too. All these secrets were explored by our participants on an evening lantern tour round the castle.

The Young Researcher Vision Camp 2020 is comming

We are planning already the next Young Researcher Vision Camp 2020 at Castle Wildenstein from June 26th-28th, 2020. Join us and be part of this unique event. In 2020 we are celebrating 10 years jubilee Vision Camp. We hope our sponsors will continue their support. The Young Researcher Vision Camp operates in a 100% sustainable manner. Only glass-bottles, re-use of food and recyclable materials are in use. We support the United Nations Climate goals.