6th UCL Early Career Researchers Symposium
26 June 2023
The 6th Early Career Researcher (ECR) Symposium took place on Tuesday, 27 June, at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health.
Organised by the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, the event is held annually as an opportunity for research students and researchers in early stages of their careers to showcase their amazing work. Besides being a co-sponsor, Moorfields Eye Charity is proud to support many of the researchers attending the symposium through its various funding programmes.
In between presentations, talks, and posters, the symposium was filled with networking opportunities. The scientific poster sessions showed off the breadth and depth of the early career researchers’ projects that range from diagnosing inherited retinal diseases with AI, to diversification training in postgraduate ophthalmology programmes, visual neuroscience and function, and repair and regeneration.
It was a full agenda and prizes were awarded, some of the highlights were:
- Dr. Julio Cesar Serrano, Moorfields Eye Charity Springboard awardee and the winner of the best scientific image competition on the day, kicked off the presentations with a talk about molecular mechanisms and treatment of retinal ciliopathies.
- We heard about the research into using the OCT eye scans to predict major adverse cardiovascular events, such as heart attack, from Mark Chia, who also won the award for best communication and best lay research summary award
- Dr Ana Alonso-Carriazo Fernandez, from the ECR committee was the joint winner of the lay research summary competition with her project on genome editing to treat Late-Onset Retinal Degeneration;
- Professor Julie Daniels amazed everyone with her marvellous panel whilst taking the audience on a journey through her career in science;
The symposium was a wonderful opportunity to hear about fantastic research directly from early career researchers, making their way as the new generation of researchers in eye health.
Congratulations to all prize winners and to the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology ECR committee for a remarkable event. Moorfields Eye Charity is proud to sponsor the Early Career Researcher Symposium and support early career students in their scientific journey.
