Pro Retina and Retina Switzerland research prize for Olivier Mercey (Centriole Lab)

The Pro Retina and Retina Suisse Foundations - foundations for the prevention of blindness - have awarded the 2024 Basic Research award to Dr Olivier Mercey of the Centriole Lab (Guichard/Hamel) for his discoveries in the treatment of Leber's congenital amaurosis (LCA5).

Leber Congenital Amaurosis is a rare inherited eye disease that causes severe visual impairment or blindness in babies or young children. In the award-winning publication, published in JCI Insight (2023), Olivier Mercey, in collaboration with a research team in Netherlands, studied molecular mechanisms involved in LCA5-associated Leber congenital amaurosis. The two teams notably showed that thanks to gene augmentation therapy, the ciliary architecture of photoreceptor cells has been decisively improved in animal models. This work paves the way for the development of future gene therapies for the treatment of this inherited retinal disease.

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