Visiting Scientist from the University of Auckland, New Zealand

Associated Professor Ilva Rupenthal visits CRC 1607

Dr. Ilva Rupenthal, Associate Professor and Director of the Buchanan Ocular Therapeutics Unit (BOTU) of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, is visiting the University Hospital Cologne and the Faculty of Medicine at the Universität zu Köln as part of her Humboldt Fellowship with the Ocular Surface Group led by Professor Philipp Steven. Her research fellowship aims at investigating new therapeutics for ocular Graft-versus-Host Disease (oGvHD). With a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, her main interest is in the area of Translational Research, applying pharmaceutical knowledge to biomedical applications to develop tailored ocular drug delivery systems that specifically target to the site of action.

As part of the new SFB 1607 “Immunomodulating and anti-(lymph)angiogenic therapies in age-related blind eye diseases”, she gave a lecture last Thursday on “Tackling inflammatory eye diseases – Connexins, inflammasomes and innovative drug delivery systems.” In her presentation, Prof. Dr. Ilva Rupenthal gave an overview of the research performed by the BOTU team focusing on the delivery of inflammasome blockers to treat inflammatory eye conditions. The talk highlighted various drug delivery approaches as well as preclinical models used to translate these ocular therapeutics from bench to bedside before outlining the rational for using an inflammasome blocker eyedrop to treat oGvHD.

Photo info:
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ilva Rupenthal with host Prof. Dr. Philipp Steven (l.) and Prof. Dr. Claus Cursiefen, spokesperson CRC 1607 (r.), Photo: Dorothea Hensen