CHOROIDEREMIA RESEARCH FOUNDATION EXPANDS LEADERSHIP AND STRENGTHENS COMMITMENT TO RARE RETINAL DISEASE RESEARCH

Five Scientific Advisory Board Members and One Board of Director Member Join the CRF

SPRINGFIELD, MA, UNITED STATES, July 16, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Choroideremia Research Foundation (CRF) is pleased to announce the appointment of new Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) members to expand and replace outgoing members as well as a new member to its Board of Directors to replace an outgoing member. These members will bring new perspectives and diverse thinking to the foundation.

“On behalf of the CRF, we are grateful and fortunate to have these new volunteer members join the organization to provide invaluable guidance and leadership,” said Neal Bench, board president. “Each of them brings important experiences from their accomplished professional lives that will enrich the thinking and decisions to be made in the future.”

The CRF welcomes the following five new members to its Scientific Advisory Board with Jess Thompson, MD, MS as chair. Please visit curechm.org/who-we-are for additional background information of all advisory board members.

Lauren Ayton, B. Optom, PhD, GCOT, FAAO
Principal Research Fellow, Optometry and Vision Sciences
University of Melbourne, Australia
Her work is focused on vision restoration, retinal pathology and clinical assessment of visual performance.

Kathleen Boesze-Battaglia, PhD
Professor, Assistant Dean for Academic Initiatives, Depart of Basic and Translational Sciences
University of Pennsylvania, United States
Her work is focused on mechanisms for the efficient targeting of phagocytosed material for waste processing in the visual system.

Kim Edwards
Graduate Research Associate, Cellular and Molecular Pathology
Waisman Center (VCRGE), Gamm Lab
University of Wisconsin, Madison, United States
Her work is focused on understanding the underlying pathobiological mechanisms of a disease called CHM. Her long-term career goals are to use pluripotent stem cell technology and disease-specific assays to both model inherited retinal disorders and to develop treatment options for affected patients.

Vasiliki Kalatzis, PhD
Group Leader of Gene Therapy of Retinal Dystrophies
Team 01 Genetics of Retinal and Optic Nerve Blindness
Institute of Neurosciences of Montpellier, France
Her work is focused on gene therapy of retinal dystrophies using human cellular models.

Dror Sharon, PhD
Sharon Lab, Department of Ophthalmology
Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, Israel
His work is focused on genetic characterization of retinal diseases in the Israel and Palestinian population and in the molecular analysis of retinal development.

The CRF also welcomes to its board of directors Liza Zumsteg, Controller with YMCA of Greater Brandywine in Pennsylvania, United States.

For more information about all research studies the CRF supports, please visit curechm.org/research/

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About Choroideremia
Choroideremia (CHM) is a rare inherited form of blindness affecting approximately 1 in 50,000 people. Due to its x-linked inheritance pattern males are most severely affected with females usually experiencing much milder visual impairment. Symptoms begin in early childhood with night blindness and restriction of visual field being the earliest noticeable effects, eventually progressing to complete blindness. An estimated 6,000 people in the United States and 10,000 in the European Union are impacted by Choroideremia. There are currently no approved treatments for Choroideremia. For more information, visit curechm.org/choroideremia

About the Choroideremia Research Foundation Inc.
The Choroideremia Research Foundation was founded in 2000 as an international fundraising and patient advocacy organization to stimulate research on CHM. Since its inception, the CRF has provided approximately $5 million in research awards and is the largest financial supporter of CHM research worldwide. Research funded by the CRF has led to the development of a CHM animal model, the pre-clinical production of gene therapy vectors currently in clinical trials, and the CRF Biobank which stores tissue and stem cell samples donated by CHM patients. For more information, visit curechm.org

Kathleen Wagner
Choroideremia Research Foundation Inc
+1 800-210-0233
kathiwagner@curechm.org
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