Aniridia Europe as a patient organisation is a partner in many projects, either on social inclusion or in scientific research field. Here below you find information about the most relevant projects we are currently involved in.
Aniridia-Net COST Action #CA181169
COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) has decided to fund the program Aniridia: Networking to address an unmet medical, scientific, and societal challenge, whose aims are to build an excellent pan-European collaboration within the aniridia community and to improve the clinical management of the disease and advance research in cornea, stem cells, genetics, regenerative medicine, transplantation and many other fields.
Aniridia Europe is a partner with the specific task of representing the patients and playing an active role towards these objectives.
If you as a scientist are interested to join, please learn more at: https://aniridia-net.eu/
About Aniridia-Net: Funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union. This activity is based upon the work from COST Action ANIRIDIA-NET #CA18116, supported by COST (www.cost.eu). COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) is a funding agency for research and innovation networks, aiming to connect research initiatives across Europe and enable scientists to grow their ideas by sharing them with their peers.
KA2 Erasmus+ Project “Looking out for a school for all”. Early educational inclusion for students with low vision
The project is focused on early educational inclusion for visually impaired children. It involves 6 partners from 3 different European countries. It is led by RedTree, a Spanish organisation that has a long experience in working with associations of people with visual impairment. The other partners are: Alba, the Spanish association for albinism, Aniridia Europe, Aniridi Norge, Aniridia Italiana and SmallCodes, an Italian company specialized in developing digital environments.
The project lasts from September 2018 to August 2021 and its its main objective is to develop materials and tools to ease the inclusion of children with visual impairment in early education.
The intellectual products of the project are:
– VisApp, an application for early visual stimulation in children;
– a handbook on inclusion for the training of teachers and trainers of early education
More info at: http://www.schoolforall.eu/
AAK-INSIGHT
The project ‘Aniridia – novel therapeutic tools to treat or prevent progressive corneal opacification (AAK-INSIGHT)’ was submitted by a consortium of researchers from several countries, led by Prof. Neil Lagali (Linköping University, Sweden) and Prof. Daniel Aberdam (CNRS, Biologie, Inserm-Technion, France).
The AAK-INSIGHT project lasts 3 years (2021-2023) and has a budget of 1.4 million Euro funded by the European Union. Its overall objective is to find a drug able to induce the production of PAX6 protein in the eye and cornea; the drug will be tested in cells and eye models of aniridia.
Among the scientists involved are Prof. Dominique Bremond-Gignac (chair of Aniridia Europe Scientific Committee), and the teams of Prof. Barbara Käsmann-Kellner and Prof. Nora Szentmary in Homburg (Germany), Prof. Martin Collinson in Aberdeen (UK), Dr Jo Zhou from the Netherlands, and Prof. Ruth Ashery-Padan from Israel.
Aniridia Europe will be in the Patient Advisory Board of the project, as well as our member associations Gêniris, Aniridi Sverige, Aniridie WAGR e.V. and Asociación Española de Aniridia.