A BUSY YEAR AHEAD

As president of EURETINA, it gives me great pleasure to write the editorial for the December/January issue of EuroTimes.

I am delighted to say that our 14th EURETINA Congress in London was the most successful in the history of the society, with 5,411 delegates attending the meeting.

The Society continues to go from strength to strength and this is largely due to the excellent work of our Programme Committee, whose members delivered an outstanding scientific programme.

There were many highlights at the meeting, including the Kreissig Lecture delivered by Dr Johanna Seddon, “Understanding the mechanisms and etiology of macular degeneration – genetics and modifiable factors”.We were also honoured with the contribution of Professor Robert McLaren, who delivered the EURETINA Lecture on “Gene Therapy for Retinal Disease – What Lies Ahead”.In London we also had the opportunity to combine forces with the ESCRS and EuCornea, and the overlapping meetings gave us the opportunity to meet and exchange views with our colleagues in different specialties.

The 15th EURETINA Congress will be held in Nice, France, from 17-20 September 2015 and already our Programme Committee is hard at work on preparing what promises to be another excellent scientific programme.

This will be a busy year and, as well as preparing for the September Congress, we are also holding the 5th EURETINA Winter Meeting in The TS Elliot Lecture Theatre, Merton College, Oxford, UK on Saturday 24 January 2015.This is a smaller and more intimate meeting than our annual Congress, with participation limited to 150 delegates, and we are privileged to be able to hold the meeting in one of Europe’s great seats of learning.

The Winter Meeting will focus on retinal research,to provide an opportunity for interaction between distinguished scientists and clinicians working in the field of translational research.The themes that will be of focus during the sessions include retinal gene therapy, stem cells, advanced imaging techniques and sight restorative therapies.

A report on the meeting will be included in a future issue of EuroTimes and once again I would like to thank the magazine for its excellent reports, not only on EURETINA meetings but on other major retina meetings from around the world.

* Prof Francesco Bandello is president of EURETINA