Photo credit: Neshan H. Naltchayan
“Looking back to when we started this event, it was during the infancy of human studies for retinal diseases,” said retired Burson-Marsteller COO Ken Rietz who participated in a study himself as a patient of Visionary Award Honoree Dr. Olsen.
“Since then we’ve entered an era of clinical trials where gene therapy is restoring vision in children and young adults, devices such as the ‘bionic retina’ are becoming available to patients, drugs with vision-saving potential are being tested, and stem cells are being translated into retinal cells. The progress is invigorating and we’re excited to unite members of Congress and other Washington leaders at ‘For the Love of Sight’ to recognize two visionaries working in the space.”
FFB Co-Founder & Chairman Gordon Gund, Karen Sessions, ABC7/WJLA-TV Anchor Alison Starling and Congressman Pete Sessions
The Foundation Fighting Blindness, a national nonprofit driving sight-saving research, honored Ryuji Ueno, M.D., Ph.D., Ph.D., co-founder of Sucampo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Timothy W. Olsen, M.D., of Emory University with the organization’s Visionary Award, in recognition of their longstanding commitment to helping patients with eye diseases.
More than 225 guests attended the 12th Annual D.C. “For the Love of Sight” Visionary Awards Dinner at the Ritz-Carlton – Downtown, Washington, D.C. – raising $320,000 to benefit research into preventions, treatments and cures for vision-robbing retinal diseases and related conditions that affect more than 10 million Americans.
Dinner Co-Founder Ann McLaughlin Korologos
Serving as Master of Ceremonies was ABC7/WJLA-TV Anchor Alison Starling, whose sister-in-law is affected with Usher syndrome, a genetic disease that robs both vision and hearing.
