In February, Riccardo, Nilisha and myself (Josh), had the opportunity to attend a meeting with members of Retina Australia ACT and the ACT Blind Society. Riccardo gave a brief talk about the work that we do in our lab followed by an opportunity for every member to ask questions to us all about anything and everything to do with what we do, how we do it, and what the future may look like for vision loss treatments.
Events like these are crucial for medical researchers to attend to not only share our research with the local community, but to learn from them as well. To hear their outlook on life and their hope for work similar to ours to be able to help those that are visually impaired is incredibly motivating.
The evening ended with canapés and a very generous donation cheque gifted to the lab from both Retina Australia ACT and the ACT Blind Society to help along our research. We are immensely grateful to Jan James and the members of both societies for their interest in our work and incredible generosity. We look forward in maintaining this close relationship with our community.