New funding of Professorship for Pro-Retina starting in Regensburg
The Pro-Retina Foundation was founded in 1996 as a patient organisation and researches retinal degeneration that leads to blindness. Since 2007 it has been an independent foundation for promoting research on new treatment modalities. In December of this year funding of a professorship specialising in retinal research was established at the Institute for Human Genetics at the University of Regensburg. Prof. Langmann’s working group will be established at the Institute for Human Genetics with Prof. Weber, an internationally recognised institution for research on the genetic and cell biological basis of inheritable retinal disease. The Institute is a national reference centre for the human genetic diagnosis of these rare inheritable diseases. In Germany one in 4000 children are born with such a disease; 30,000 patients suffer here in Germany from retinitis pigmentosa. Following an application process throughout the country, the Pro-Retina Foundation decided to establish the funding of a professorship specialising in retinal research at this institute. The working group works on the genetic and immunological causes of inheritable and age-related retinal disease. In the framework of its research work, the team has been able to prove that the immune system is activated on a sustained basis in the dying off the photoreceptors and that phagocytes are over active. The goal of the scientists to develop retinal treatment based on immunological strategies to maintain sight.
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