R&D news updates

On this page, you can find the R&D News updates since March 2021.

September 15, 2022 | Champalimaud Vision Award 2022

Gerrit Melles was given the prestigious António Champalimaud Vision Award 2022 in a ceremony in Lisbon today. He shares the award, and the prize money of 1 million euros, with Harvard researcher Professor Claes Dohlman. Gerrit Melles wins the award for his pioneering innovations in the field of corneal transplants, including ‘endothelial keratoplasty’, which provide better and faster visual recovery and have a lower complication risk compared to conventional techniques. Click here to read more

August 25, 2022 | Tomographic features after DMEK

In this study our colleagues Stefanie Voncken Santana and Indre Vasiliauskaite evaluated whether the presence of subclinical edema in FECD eyes, which can be detected using tomographic features, influences outcomes after DMEK. Find out more about the findings of this study in our CORNEA publication. Click here to read more

July 22, 2022 | Virtual World Eye Banking Symposium 2022

Our colleague Esther Groeneveld-van Beek was invited to the World Eye Banking Symposium to share her view of what will come after DSEK and DMEK for eye banks. Click here to read more

June 29, 2022 | NOG Congess 2022

The NIIOS team enjoyed being part of this year’s NOG congress in Groningen and it was a pleasure to share our research during the two cornea sessions with the latest findings on DMEK, Bowman layer onlay transplantation and PTK. We are grateful for meeting so many of our Dutch colleagues in person again! Click here to read more

June 25-26, 2022 | 13th EuCornea Congress 2022

On June 25-26, over 400 delegates attended the 13th EuCornea Congress in Athens. NIIOS was represented by Indre Vasiliauskaite presenting the long-term clinical outcomes and graft survival after DMEK and by Viridiana Kocaba who was invited to present Bowman layer transplantation as a new treatment option for advanced progressive keratoconus.  Click here to read more

June 12, 2022 | AECOS European Research Grant 2022

Congratulations to Viridiana Kocaba for receiving the AECOS 2022 European Research Grant for the work on laser-assisted Bowman layer graft preparation. During the AECOS European Symposium in Antwerp, Viridiana had the opportunity to present an overview of her research grant topic. Click here to read more

May 20, 2022 | NIIOS Cornea Evening 2022

It was a pleasure to host this year’s edition of the NIIOS online Cornea Evening in a TV studio with a fantastic panel to discuss new developments in the field of cornea and to exchange new perspectives. Next to the live broadcasts on May 20, there were three additional broadcast on May 21, May 24 and June 9.  Click here to read more

May 9, 2022 | 128th SFO Meeting 2022

During the annual meeting of the French Ophthalmological Society (SFO) in Paris, Viridiana Kocaba and our corneal fellow Achraf Laouani presented some challenging DMEK cases.  Click here to read more

May 2, 2022 | ARVO Meeting 2022

We are very excited that our colleagues Esther Groeneveld-van Beek, Alina Miron and Indre Vasiliauskaite are sharing our research at the ARVO 2022 in Denver. Alina and Indre are looking forward to inspiring discussions during their poster presentations and Esther will give an online presentation with the latest update on laser-assisted Bowman layer preparation. Click here to read more

April 11, 2022 | Power List Ophthalmology 2022

The NIIOS team is very proud that Gerrit Melles was again selected to be part of the 2022 Power List. This annual list is provided by ‘The Ophthalmologist’ to acknowledge the achievements of the most influential figures in ophthalmology.

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April 4, 2022 | Expertise List Corneal Endothelium

We feel very honoured that NIIOS is listed as a top-ranking expertise center for the corneal endothelium. At NIIOS we are dedicated to learn more about endothelial cells every day and to share this knowledge with the cornea community so that we can improve treatment options and patients’ vision. We are very proud of our unique team that makes this possible! Click here to read more

March 25, 2022 | Symposium on Innovations in Ophthalmology, March 2022

Dr. Viridiana Kocaba presented our work on Bowman layer onlay transplantation during the symposium on Innovations in Ophthalmology organized by the European Ophthalmology Institute in cooperation with AECOS.

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March 20, 2022 | GERSO Webinar March 2022

During the GERSO Webinar on corneal dystrophies, organized by Prof. Alío and Dr. Jacob, Dr. Viridiana Kocaba shared her expertise on Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy.

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March 5, 2022 | EEBA Meeting 2022

Our eye bank team was well represented at the annual EEBA Meeting and was happy to share our work on graft quality and transplantation outcomes.

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December 1, 2021 | PhD Defence Lamis Baydoun

On December 1, Lamis Baydoun successfully defended her PhD thesis at the University of Leiden. Congratulations to Dr. Baydoun for her fantastic work and congratulations also to her promotors Prof. Martine Jager (Leiden University) and Dr. Gerrit Melles.

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November 17, 2021 | Bressler Prize 2020

On November 17, Gerrit Melles received the 2020 Bressler Prize in Vision Science for important advancements in the treatment of people with vision loss.

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November 12, 2021 | Cornea and Eye Banking Forum 2021

We are honored that Viridiana Kocaba was part of the faculty at the Cornea and Eye Banking Forum 2021 with her presentation on long-term DMEK outcomes.

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October 9, 2021 | ESCRS Congress 2021

ESCRS 2021 has been the first face-to-face meeting for most of us since a long time and was a fantastic opportunity to reconnect, to share and discuss our scientific and clinical work.

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October 7, 2021 | Visit by Prof. Martin Dirisamer

Our alumni fellow Martin Dirisamer joined us on October 7 as a wetlab course instructor sharing his experience with Bowman layer transplantation.

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September 30, 2021 | Dr. Dapena is leaving NIIOS

Dr. Dapena joined NIIOS in the pioneering DMEK times and became a world-renown DMEK surgeon. We would like to thank her for all her contributions to our work field!

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August 27, 2021 | SOG Congress 2021

Esther Groeneveld-van Beek shared her ‘Insights in Bowman Layer Transplantation’ during the ‘Eye banking and tissue transplantation’ symposium at the Annual Swiss Ophthalmology Congress.

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June 30, 2021 | ECD and DMEK Graft Survival

Low 6-month ECD negatively effects DMEK graft survival in eyes with Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy: Grafts with 6-month ECD of less than 800 cells/mm2 have higher failure rates whereas grafts with higher 6-month ECD show good long-term outcomes. Find more details on this study in our Ophthalmology publication.

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June 1, 2021 | DMEK Graft Cell Viability

Our findings on how graft preparation and storage effects endothelial cell density and viability of DMEK grafts have just been published in Current Eye Research.

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May 29, 2021 | NIIOS Cornea Evening

It was a pleasure to actively contribute to the NIIOS Cornea Evening on May 29 with presentations and discussions along with international colleagues.

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May 10, 2021 | SFO Meeting 2021

Viridiana Kocaba and Keamela Vasanthananthan talked at the SFO meeting about ‘Rebel Grafts’ and ‘Effect of Phacoemulsification after DMEK’.

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May 10, 2021 | Guest Editorial JCRS

In a Guest Editorial of the May 2021 issue of JCRS, Dr. Melles highlights the developments in endothelial keratoplasty over the last two decades.

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May 10, 2021 | ARVO Meeting 2021

Alina Miron shared part of our current research at the ARVO meeting 2021 and Viridiana Kocaba presented the latest results of experiments conducted at the Singapore Eye Institute.

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May 1, 2021 | NIIOS Cornea Evening – Live Online

We are looking forward to our NIIOS Cornea Evening on May 29 with exciting presentations from renowned international and NIIOS experts. Don’t wait to register!

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April 20, 2021 | Bowman Layer Onlay Grafting

The results of a first case series of five patients in which Bowman layer onlay grafting provided a corneal flattening of up to -5D has just been published.

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April 20, 2021 | Expertise Corneal Transplantation

We feel very honoured that NIIOS/MHR is listed as a top expertise institution for corneal transplantation in a recently published ranking!

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April 20, 2021 | Cell Replacement Therapies

In our recent review article, we focus on the latest developments in the field of endothelial cell replacement therapies.

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March 26, 2021 | Bowman Club Presentation

Our colleague Lydia van der Star gave a presentation on the outcomes of Bowman layer transplantation for advanced keratoconus at the online meeting of The Bowman Club.

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March 23, 2021 | NOG Congress 2021

Excited to share our latest results on DMEK and Bowman layer onlay transplantation during the 215th Congress of the Dutch Ophthalmological Society (NOG).

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March 23, 2021 | Phacoemulsification after DMEK?

In a recent study, we evaluated the incidence of cataract extraction after phakic DMEK and its effect on endothelial cell density.

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