Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Meeting of the SUNY Eye Institute.

In an article that appeared in a prior volume of this journal,1 an overview was presented of the formation, structure and scope of purpose of the SUNY Eye Institute (SEI), a collaborative research and educational consortium that initially comprised of members of the ophthalmology departments from the four health science campuses of the State University of New York, namely University at Buffalo, SUNY Upstate Medical University (Syracuse), SUNY Downstate Medical Center (Brooklyn), and SUNY Stony Brook plus the College of Optometry (New York City). Since the formation of the SEI, the College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering at SUNY Albany has been added as a formal partner in this New York state-wide consortium.

The SEI held its fourth annual meeting in Buffalo, NY, on September 8-9, 2012, at the University at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo). Participants included SEI-affiliated faculty, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, ophthalmology residents and research staff, plus external invited guests. The one-and-a-half-day meeting consisted of formal oral presentations, including a Keynote Address (the Robert Barlow Lecture), lectures by representative faculty from each of the constituent campuses of the SEI, plus a special external presentation by a representative from Bausch & Lomb. In addition, students and faculty gave poster presentations representing the wide range of research going on within the SEI.

The Robert Barlow Lecture, which honors the legacy of Robert Barlow, PhD, the “founding father” of the SEI and an internationally acclaimed vision scientist, educator, and administrator, was given by David R. Williams, PhD (Professor of Ophthalmology, University of Rochester, School of Medicine). Dr. William’s lecture, entitled “Seeing Through Retinal Mosaics”, presented a masterful overview of the development and applications of adaptive optics (AO),2,3 one of the most powerful tools developed in the past decade for imaging ocular cells (notably, photoreceptors) noninvasively in the living eye. For his co-development of the AO technology and advancement of its use in research and clinical settings, Dr. Williams subsequently was named a co-recipient of the highly prestigious António Champalimaud Vision Award for 2012, along with Drs. Carmen Puliafito, James Fujimoto, Eric Swanson, Joel Schuman, and David Huang, by the Champalimaud Foundation in Portugal.

A list of the other speakers and the titles of their presentations includes:

Francesca Pignoni, PhD (SUNY Upstate Medical University): Developing a Fly Model for Genetic/Pharmaceutical Intervention in Retinal Disease.

Magnus Bergkvist, PhD (College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering, SUNY Albany): College of Nanoscale Science & Engineering: Resources and Opportunities.

Reza Haque, MD, PhD (Professional Affairs and Global Program, Bausch & Lomb): Bausch & Lomb: Global Product Development and Transformation.

Arianna Maffei, PhD (SUNY Stony Brook): The Dark Side of the Force; How Inhibition Controls Activity in the Primary Visual Cortex.

Mitchell Dul, OD, MS (SUNY College of Optometry): Application of Psychophysical Models to Visual Disorders.

Sangita P. Patel, MD, PhD (University at Buffalo/Ross Eye Institute): The Bull’s Eye: Are We Off-Target for Cornea Endothelial Cell Physiology?

James D. Reynolds, MD (University at Buffalo/Ross Eye Institute): ROP Consensus, Questions, and Possible Solutions: A Model for Cooperative Interactions Across the SEI.

Brahim Chaqour, PhD (SUNY Downstate Medical Center): Role of the CNN Proteins in Retinal Neovascularization.

In the current issue of this journal, we have included articles based upon four of the above mentioned lectures (see articles herein by corresponding authors Drs. Brahim Chaqour, Mitchell Dul, Sangita Patel and Francesca Pignoni)4-7. These articles represent a small sampling of the diversity of research initiatives ongoing throughout the SEI.