ASRS 2023: Interviewees weigh in on what research is most exciting

The American Society of Retina Specialists held their 2023 annual meeting in Seattle, Washington. At the event, we asked, "What research here do you find exciting or interesting?" Here's what Aaron Lee, MD, Megan Baldwin PhD, and Carl Danzig, MD had to say!

Video Transcript

Editor's note - This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Aaron Lee, MD:

Yeah, I mean, there's a large number of them, especially with the new therapeutics that are coming online with dry AMD and wet AMD. We now have a lot more choices than ever before. I think what's going to be confusing and the field will struggle with is understanding what drug to use when. And that's why again, I think, hopefully, artificial intelligence will be one of the methods that can help us discern which, which therapy might be best for a given patient.

Megan Baldwin, PhD:

Well, look, I'm, I'm a researcher by background. I've seen a number of different presentations at this conference and also at the Ophthalmology Innovations Summit, which was earlier in the week. And I'm really excited by some of the new research coming through on mitochondrial approaches.

Some of the regenerative medicine approaches that I think in the longer term are really based on really exciting science. And I think in the longer term, if we can start to look at novel mechanisms, we are going to have much better outcomes for patients overall, I think some of that early research has got a long way to go.

But it's great to see the fruition of a lot of basic academic research now starting to be translated into new therapeutics. And I like to think that OPT-302 and our approach is just 1 example of that. And we are now in Phase 3 clinical development, but it came from really great scientific research that we've been working on for many, many years. And I see the parallels with some of the early research coming through now as well.

Carl Danzig, MD:

I'm very interested in the Aviceda program. Carl Regillo just had an excellent presentation this morning. It's very early phase, but we're looking at the potential to treat GA patients and also have an effect on neovascularization. So I find that very exciting.