Dr. Rahhal is quickly becoming a prolific podcaster. In this week's roundup Firas hosts three podcasts with another impressive list of guests offering different perspectives on ophthalmic innovation. 

In this third OIS Retina Podcast, host Firas Rahhal, MD, sat down with Paul Hallen, VP, Global Head, Retina and Glaucoma, at Alcon, who talks about how he grew with the company over 31 years and provides an engineer’s perspective on how far innovation in retina surgery has come, and where it’s heading. ​
Watch the conversation on YouTube. 

In the fourth installment of the OIS Retina Podcast guest is French-born Patricia Zilliox, who boomeranged back to her homeland to become president and CEO of Eyevensys. Before that she’d spent 25 years with Alcon before joining the Foundation Fighting Blindness as chief drug development officer. Having spent so much time evaluating new therapies at FFB, she was intrigued by Eyevensys’ unique platform to enable the sustained intraocular production of therapeutic proteins to treat a broad range of ophthalmic disease. Listen to hear Patricia share more details on Eyevensys’ lead product: a gene therapy to treat uveitis. 
Watch the conversation here. 

In this episode of the OIS Retina Podcast, Firas is joined by legendary vitreoretinal specialist and serial entrepreneur, Mark Blumenkranz, MD, MMS. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing in the start-up ship, but Dr. Blumenkranz persevered and now shares his proven recipe for ophthalmic innovation. (Hint: It starts with an unmet need.) Dr. Blumenkranz also talks about his investment/incubation firm Lagunitas Biosciences and drug delivery start-up Kedalion Therapeutics. 
​Watch the conversation here. 

LensGen maintains momentum in their work toward an Investigational Device Exemption ("IDE") approval by closing additional financing and adding James (Jim) Mazzo to the board. Jim brings over 40 years of ophthalmic industry experience. The $10 million is an important step toward the company's Series B financing that will fund LensGen through approval of Juvene IOL pivotal FDA study. 
Read the full announcement here. 
​

LensGen CEO Ram Rao sits down with Dr. Ehsan Sadri on the OIS Podcast to discuss his entrepreneurial journey, the recent financing, and the history of LensGen. Listen here and see below for a video of the discussion. 

Phase 1/2 “INTREPID” trial to evaluate safety and ability of engineered FGF-1 to regenerate corneal endothelial cells San Diego, CA – August 19, 2020 – Trefoil Therapeutics today announced it has initiated the first clinical trial of its engineered Fibroblast Growth Factor-1 TTHX1114 for the regenerative treatment of people with corneal endothelial dystrophies (CED), including Fuchs Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy. The Phase 1/2 trial (“INTREPID”) is designed to evaluate TTHX1114’s safety and ability to stimulate the regeneration of corneal endothelial cells lost due to CED when administered by intracameral (back of the cornea) injection. Continue reading

Watch CEO David Eveleth at OIS@AAO.