New Delhi, 28-29 September 2024

Scientists, faculty members, and research scholars from Aravind Medical Research Foundation (AMRF) participated in the 30th Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO)-India 2024, held at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. They contributed through lectures, talks, and presentations. The programme centred on this year’s theme, “Evolving Dimensions in Eye Research.” During the event, Dr. P. Sundaresan, Scientist, AMRF, delivered the Dr. D. Balasubramanian Oration Lecture on the topic, Molecular genetics in ocular diseases: Laneways for personalised medicine, while Dr. S. Senthilkumari, Scientist, Ocular Pharmacology, AMRF, delivered a keynote lecture on, MicroRNA-based therapeutics for steroid-induced ocular hypertension/glaucoma: Insights from Ex Vivo studies of human eyes.

Dr. Anwar Azad (Designation) gave an invited talk at the Symposium cum Workshop on “Advanced Techniques to Augment Innovations in Vision Sciences” on the topic, Challenges in retinal organoids and potential advancements.

Prof. K. Dharmalingam, Director, Research, AMRF, delivered an invited talk at the Symposium on “HRMS using Orbitrap Technology” on the topic, Proteomics of ocular extracellular vesicles. Iswarya and R. Sethu Nagarajan received travel fellowships, with Sethu Nagarajan also receiving the Young Investigator Award for Best Poster. Additionally, other participants from AMRF presented posters and papers, as follows:

Oral Presentations:

Saraswathi – Genomic and transcriptomic profiling identifies distinct molecular signatures in Recurrent Ocular Adnexal B-Cell Lymphoma
Dr. Swagata Ghosh – Corneal transcriptomic signatures in fusarium keratitis patients with distinct disease trajectories: Deciphering protective and pathogenic host responses
Dr. Daipayan Banerjee – Epigenetic alterations in pterygium: Genome-wide methylation profiling reveals potential oncogenic pathways

Poster Presentations:

Sethu Nagarajan – Patient-derived three-dimensional spheroid culture: a promising model for drug screening in retinoblastoma
Kanthimathi – Integrative metadata analysis and validation of putative markers for adult retinal pigment epithelial stem cells
Thusmitha – Decline in YAP nuclear expression in lens epithelium of cataractous donors compared to healthy donor lenses
Iswarya – Trabecular meshwork stem cell exosomes: Identifying the cargo and functional efficacy for a cell-free therapy for glaucoma
Keerthana – Characterisation of pearl/regeneratory posterior capsular opacification
Praveen Kumar – Identification of human corneal miRNAs in the disease severity of pseudomonas aeruginosa keratitis
Shiva Shankari – Clinical profile of neuro-ophthalmological conditions at a tertiary eye care centre:  A six-year retrospective study
Hariharan – Proteomic analysis of extracellular vesicles from saprophytic and clinical isolates of Aspergillus Flavus: A comparative study
Aadhithiya T. G. served as an observer.