Macular Chats

Katherine Freund, Founder and President of Independent Transportation Network of America, discusses how aging impacts our driving skills, explores alternatives to driving, as well as what you can do if there are no currently driving resources in your area.

This episode featured guest speaker Preeti Subramanian, PhD, who oversees the Macular Degeneration Research and National Glaucoma Research programs at BrightFocus Foundation. Dr. Subramanian highlighted some of the exciting research currently funded by BrightFocus.

This episode featured Rob Howden and Diane Marshall, both currently living with geographic atrophy, the advanced form of dry macular degeneration. They give a firsthand account of daily living with geographic atrophy and discuss the importance of diagnosis.

This episode featured Dr. Surendra Sharma, Senior VP of Medical Affairs at Outlook Therapeutics. Dr. Sharma discussed the difference between Wet AMD and Dry AMD, who is at risk for Wet AMD, and what treatment options are available.

This episode featured Joshua Dunaief, MD, PhD, professor of ophthalmology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Dunaief spoke about symptoms and treatments for macular degeneration, including a new study of zebra fish to understand how they regenerate eye cells. Participants asked questions regarding eye injections, the risk factors of drusen turning into geographic atrophy and how important a healthy diet is to help prevent macular degeneration.

This episode featured guest speakers Maureen Foley and Sheila Klein, who are both currently living with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and gave firsthand accounts of daily living with low vision. They also discussed the biggest challenges and the resources they find most helpful while living with AMD.

This episode featured Jerry Feliz, Access Technology Director at Massachusetts Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. He discussed how to use a screen reader and apps the blind can use to help with daily activities. Jerry also spoke about his YouTube channel and he let participants know that he does private consultations for anyone that might need extra help increasing their independence with assistive technology.

BrightFocus Foundation hosted this monthly chat featuring Dr. Maria Richman, a Low Vision Rehabilitation Optometrist from Shore Family Eyecare in New Jersey. Dr. Richman discussed Advanced Macular Degeneration and provided an update on the investigational medical device called the SING Implantable Miniature Telescope. She discussed the improvements and benefits made to the new implantable telescope device as well as the criteria that is needed in order to join the clinical trial for the device.

This episode featured Dr. Sally Temple and Dr. Jeffrey Stern who are both co-discoverers of stem cells in the human retinal pigment epithelium at the Neural Stem Cell Institute, who addressed the role of stem cells in central nervous system development, maintenance, and repair. There was also discussion about cell transplants to replace retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) and clinical trials for stem cell therapy and AMD.

Understanding Dry AMD and Geographic Atrophy.” The event featured Dr. David S. Liao, a board-certified ophthalmologist at the Retina-Vitreous Associates Medical Group, who specializes in the medical and surgical treatment of diseases of the retina and vitreous. The hosts discussed a proposed and promising pharmaceutical under investigation for geographic atrophy (GA) using a targeted C3 therapy. There was also discussion about other possible treatment for Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and GA, clinical research, how long eye disease may take to progress, and regular provider visits with optometrists and ophthalmologists.