Preliminary Program


Special meeting - Pre-Conference 

Wednesday, September 9  (2:00 - 4:30 PM)

Unique challenges and unmet needs for the treatment of ocular surface disease in various regions of the world

Moderators – Di Chen (China), Arturo Grau Diez (Chile), Sarah Farrant (UK)

Opening remarks – Piera Versura (Italy)

Introduction
The importance of understanding the unmet needs for the treatment of ocular surface diseases throughout the world – Monica Alves (Brazil)

Presentations
North America (i.e. USA and Canada) - Todd Margolis (USA)
Latin America - Juan Carlos Abad (Colombia)
Europe - Jelle Vehof (The Netherlands)
Africa - Sihem Lazreg (Algeria)
Asia – Shigeru Kinoshita (Japan)
Oceania - Fiona Stapleton (Australia)
Synopsis and closing remarks – Eric Papas (Australia)

TFOS 2020 Conference

Thursday, September 10

Opening remarks - Stefano Barabino (Italy)


Conference Address

Moderator – Stefano Barabino (Italy) 

A Lifestyle Epidemic: Ocular Surface Disease – Jennifer P Craig (New Zealand)


Session 1.  Ocular surface disease: What we do to ourselves

Moderators: Leslie O’Dell (USA), Bridgitte Shen Lee (USA)
 
Cosmetics - Alison Ng (Canada)
 
Digital eye strain - James Wolffsohn (UK)  

External environment (e.g. pollution, humidity, sick building syndrome, airconditioning/heating) – Louis Tong (Singapore)

Contact lenses – Mark Willcox (Australia)
 
Depression and stress – Choun-Ki Joo (South Korea) 

Age - Kazuo Tsubota (Japan)


Session 2.  East, West, North, South: Impact of geographic region and ethnicity on the prevalence and management of ocular surface disease

Moderators -  Vatinee Bunya (USA), Afsun Sahin (Turkey)

Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy and corneal endothelial diseases  - Jodhbir Mehta (Singapore)

Keratoconus – Farhad Hafezi (Switzerland)

Dry eye disease - Michael TM Wang (New Zealand)

Ocular Allergy – Andrea Leonardi (Italy)

Uncorrected refractive error – Lixia Lou (China)

Pterygium - José Gomes (Brazil)


Session 3.  New insights into the pathophysiology and management of catastrophic ocular surface diseases

Moderators – Takashi Kojima (Japan), Kyung Chul Yoon (South Korea)

Corneal ulcers (e.g. due to bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections) – James Chodosh (USA)

Ocular chemical injuries - Geetha Iyer (India)


Graft versus host disease - Victor L Perez Quinones (USA)

Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis - Hajirah Saeed (USA) 

Neurotrophic keratopathy – Harminder Dua (UK) 

Ocular surface tumors – Carol L Karp (USA)  


Session 4. Seeing differently: The meaning of blindness

Moderators – Gerd Geerling (Germany), José Benitez del Castillo Sanchez (Spain) 

Seeing differently: A blind person's perspective on the meaning of blindness - Deborah Tramentozzi (Italy)

Seeing differently: A clinician's perspective on the meaning of blindness – Lotfi Merabet (USA)


Session 5. New approaches for the diagnosis and/or treatment of ocular surface diseases

Moderators –  Georgios Kontadakis (Greece), Edoardo Villani (Italy) 

An algorithm for the preoperative diagnosis and treatment of ocular surface disorders – Christopher E Starr (USA)

Use of exosomes for cornea wound healing  - Ali Djalilian (USA)

Liquid cornea  - Virender Sangwan (India)

Thymosin b4: Resurrection of a small, yet powerful, protein in the treatment of bacterial keratitis - Elizabeth Berger (USA)
 
Proteoglycan 4: Impact on the ocular surface and beyond - Tannin Schmidt (USA)

Restoring ocular surface homeostasis through alteration of autophagy - Gordon Laurie (USA)


Poster Session 1

Moderators –  Enesa Begovic (Bosnia), Adriana Stanila (Romania) 



TFOS i² Innovation Showcase (early evening)

Moderator – David A Sullivan (USA)

Introduction (4 minutes) – Amy Gallant Sullivan (USA)

Startup company presentations – each 3 minutes, 2 minutes discussion



Friday, September 11


Session 6. Meibomian gland dysfunction update

Moderators - Anthony Bron (UK), Donald Korb (USA)

The prevalence of meibomian gland dysfunction in adults – Jutta Horwath-Winter (Austria)

Prevalence of meibomian gland atrophy in a pediatric population – Preeya Gupta (USA)

Distribution and Characteristics of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction Subtypes – Kyung-Sun Na (South Korea)

Hyperlipidemia induces meibomian gland dysfunction – Wei Li (China)

The role of fibrosis in meibomian gland dysfunction – Christophe Baudouin (France)

Meibomian gland regeneration (hypoxia, ECM & stem cells) - Yang Liu (USA)


Session 7. Possible treatments for meibomian gland dysfunction - What are the data? 

Moderator –  Kaevalin Lekhanont (Thailand), Kelly Nichols (USA)

Intraductal probing – Joseph Ciolino (USA)

Thermal pulsation – Allister G Gibbons (USA)  

Intense pulsed light therapy– Joanne Shen (USA)

Microbelpharon exfoliation – Jaya Siddireddy (Australia)

Eyelid warming devices - William Ngo (Canada)

Quantum molecular resonance electrotherapy - Giulio Ferrari (Italy)


Session 8. Models and biomarkers for ocular surface disease

Moderators – Benjamin Sullivan (USA), Piera Versura (Italy)

Multiscale reverse engineering of the human ocular surface - Jeongyun Seo (USA/Korea)

Key integrator in the lacrimal gland-cornea feedback loop - Alison Kuony (Finland)

Neutrophils, the meibomian gland and a chronic inflammatory model of allergic eye disease – Daniel R Saban (USA)

Role of lymphangiogenesis in the regulation of corneal edema and transparency - Claus Cursiefen (Germany)

Utility of tear biomarkers for ocular surface and systemic diseases – Sarah Hamm-Alvarez (USA)

Regulatory and Developmental Aspects of Biomarkers in the Treatment of Ocular Surface Disease
– Gary Novack (USA)


Session 9. Did you know?

Moderators –  Pasquale Aragona (Italy), Jesús Merayo-Lloves (Spain)

Convergence of artificial intelligence and microelectronics with ocular surface biology and disease – Dimitri Azar (USA)

Disruptive contact lens technologies  – Lyndon Jones (Canada)

The multifaceted role of galectin-3 on the ocular surface – Pablo Argueso (USA) 

Primum non nocere: The challenge of iatrogenic ocular surface disease – Christina Grupcheva (Bulgaria)

Glaucoma treatment: The bane of the ocular surface – Stefano Bonini (Italy)

What happens when corneal epithelial cells become stressed? - W Gregory Sawyer (USA)


Session 10. Risk factors for dry eye disease - What are the data?

Moderators –  Blanka Golebiowski (Australia), Paul Karpecki (USA)

Sleep disorders – Masahiko Ayaki (Japan)

Diabetes – Danielle Robertson (USA)

Office environment – Murat Dogru (Australia)

Oral contraceptives – Meng C Lin (USA)

Demodex - Alex Muntz (New Zealand)

Vitamin D-deficiency - James McMillan (USA)
  

Poster Session 2

Moderators –  Heiko Pult (Germany), Scott Schachter (USA) 


Saturday, September 12


Session 11. Debate

Moderators –  Etty Bitton (Canada), Maria Markoulli (Australia)

Are omega-3 supplements for treating dry eye an e-fish-ent approach or is the evidence de-fish-ent?

De-fish-ent – Penny Asbell (USA)

E-fish-ent – Laurie Downie (Australia)


Session 12. Limbal stem cell deficiency

Moderators – Paolo Rama (Italy), Shigeto Shimmura (Japan)

The promise and challenge of stem cells in regenerative medicine - Graziella Pellegrini (Italy)

Homeostasis of the corneal stem cell niche from a single cell analysis prospective - Majlinda Lako (UK)

Monitoring the activity of limbal stem cells during development, health, disease and after transplantation – Nick Di Girolamo (Australia)

Diagnosis and staging of limbal stem cell deficiency - Sophie Deng (USA)

Advances in the treatment of limbal stem cell deficiency - Sayan Basu (India)

Bioengineered cornea construct - Julie Daniels (UK)


Session 13. What a nerve!

Moderators – Carlos Belmonte (Spain), Jason Nichols (USA)

What is neuropathic pain, and what are the underlying mechanisms? – Anat Galor (USA)

Neuropathic disease beyond the eye - Peter Reeh (Germany)
 
Pain and neuroimmune cell interactions -  Marzia Malcangio (UK) 

Management of neuropathic pain – Pedram Hamrah (USA)

Corneal nerve regeneration in dry eye disease - Sarah Knox (USA)

Does a viral infection make you blink? - Anthony St Leger (USA)


Session 14. Targeting the immune system  

Moderators –  Esen Akpek (USA), Kyoung Yul Seo (South Korea)

Requirement for type I interferon signaling in lacrimal gland autoimmune disease – Scott Lieberman (USA)

Neurological and inflammatory manifestations in Sjögren's syndrome: The role of the kynurenine metabolic pathway - Eduardo Rocha (Brazil)

The mucosal surfaces of both eyes are immunologically linked by a neurogenic inflammatory reflex – Jeremias Galletti (Argentina)

Neutrophil extracellular traps – Sandeep Jain (USA)

Anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic effects of human amniotic membrane mesenchymal stem cells – Alejandro Navas (Mexico)

Research priorities for innovation and translation in allergic diseases – Sergio Bonini (Italy)


Session 15. The microbiome: Do we need to keep an eye on it?

Moderators – Eisuke Shimizu (Japan), Jerome Ozkan (Australia)

How and when is symbiosis of a human host with their microbiota established? – Marcus C de Goffau (UK) 

Visions of eye commensals: The known and the unknown about how the microbiome affects eye disease - Rachel Caspi (USA)

Role of microbiota in strengthening ocular mucosal barrier function through secretory IgA– Mihaela Gadjeva (USA)

Protective role of commensal bacteria in Sjögren syndrome - Cintia de Paiva (USA)

Nerves (TRPA1) prevent bacterial adhesion to the corneal surface – Suzi Fleiszig (USA)

Do adenoviruses repurpose bacterial recombination machinery? – Jaya Rajaiya (USA)


Poster Session 3

Moderators – Cecilia Marini (Argentina), Elisabeth Messmer (Germany) 


Closing remarks - David A Sullivan (USA)