Retinal light toxicity

Biographies

Francine Béhar-Cohen

Francine Béhar-Cohen is Professor in Ophthalmology at Paris Descartes University and is heading the department of ophthalmology of Hôtel-Dieu Hospital in Paris. She is also heading the Inserm research group « Physiopathology of ocular diseases : Therapeutic innovations «  at the Centre de Recherches des Cordeliers. 

She is interested in animal models of human retinal diseases and in translational medicine up to the development of drug delivery systems for treateing eye diseases. Those last years, she has been involved in the risk evaluation of new lighting systems and directed the group of work at ANSES which has published the report of LED in 2010.

She also has been part of the Scenihr group of work on lighting systems which report was issued this spring.

She has published more than 145 papers in peer-reviewed journals

John Marshall

Professor John Marshall is the Frost Professor of Ophthalmology at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, Emeritus professor of ophthalmology at Kings College London , honorary distinguished Prof of optometry and visual science Cardiff University and honorary Professor, School of Health Science, Caledonian University.

His research over the past forty years has ranged over a number of ocular problems but has concentrated on the inter-relationships between light and ageing, the mechanisms underlying age-related, diabetic and inherited retinal disease, and the development of lasers for use in ophthalmic diagnosis and surgery. This work has resulted in almost four hundred research papers and numerous book chapters and books. It produced and patented the revolutionary Excimer laser for the correction of refractive disorders with in excess of 30 million procedures now having been undertaken worldwide. It also created the world's first Diode laser for treating eye problems of diabetes, glaucoma and ageing. He is editor and co-editor of numerous international journals.

He has sat on and chaired many national and international committees concerned with protecting the public against the possible damaging effects of lasers and other artificial light sources and played the leading role with the ICRC and addressed the United Nations to obtain a Geneva Convention banning the use of anti-personnel laser weapons.

Jean Cadet

Jean Cadet is Scientific Adviser at the French Atomic Energy Commission, CEA/Grenoble and Adjunct Professor, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada after being the head of the Laboratory of "Lésions des Acides Nucléiques" and Research Director at CEA.  He his involved in research activities that deal with various aspects of the chemistry and biochemistry of oxidatively generated and photo-induced damage to DNA. He is author or co-author of 550 publications consisting of more than 480 original contributions to peer-reviewed journals and about 70 book chapters. His "h" factor is 61. He has been and is member of the editorial board of several journals: Chemical Research in Toxicology (until 2009), Free Radical Research (until 2009) Free Radical in Biology and Medicine, Mutation Research, Indian Journal of Radiation Research, International Journal of Radiation Biology, International of Low-Dose Radiation Biology. He has been recently appointed as Associate Editor of Radiation Research and Journal of Biochemical Technology and since 2009 he is the Editor-in-Chief of Photochemistry and Photobiology. He has received several awards including "Armes Lecturer" from the University of Manitoba at Winnipeg, "Weiss Medal" from the Association for Radiation Research, UK, "Grand Prix Scientifique" from CEA, "Research Award" from the American Society for Photobiology, the "Medal for Excellence" from the European Society for Photobiology. He has also received the "Prix Charles Dhéré" in chemical biology and the "Médaille Berthelot" in chemistry from the French Academy of Sciences.  He has been promoted “Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite” by the French Minister of Universities and Research.

Charlotte Remé

Charlotte Remé was head of the laboratory of Retinal Cell Biology of the University Eye Clinic Zurich until her retirement in 2009.

The laboratory was and is now under Prof. Christian Grimm nationally and internationally recognized as one of the top institutions working on mechanisms of retinal degeneration with light damage to the retina and pigment epithelium being a longstanding interest. The laboratory includes work on neuroprotection, visual pigment interactions and the generation of mouse models for retinal degenerations. As recognition for her outstanding achievement and scientific contribution, Dr. Remé received a number of international prizes throughout her career. Specifically, ARVO awarded Dr. Remé the Proctor Medal, which is among the highest awards in ophthalmological science.

Małgorzata Różanowska

Małgorzata Różanowska has graduated with MSc in physics, specialisation in medical physics from the Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland and then with PhD in biophysics from the Institute of Molecular Biology, Jagiellonian University (advisor: Prof. T. Sarna). Already while working on her PhD she got interested in light-induced damage to the retina and she was investigating potential roles of melanosomes and lipofuscin. During her training she got opportunities to do summer research studentships at Professor R Seljelid laboratory, Institute of Medical Biology, Tromso, Norway; and at Professor MAJ Rodgers laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Bowling Green State University, OH, USA. In 1997 – 2000 she worked as Research and Teaching Associate at the Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University. During 1993-2000 she worked at Keele University and Paterson Institute for Cancer Research, Christie Hospital NHS Trust, using laser flash photolysis and pulse radiolysis in collaboration with Professor T. G. Truscott and Dr E. J. Land based on short term-visits. In 2000 she was promoted to Assistant Professor at the Department of Biophysics, Faculty of Biotechnology, Jagiellonian University. In 2000-2002 she was awarded by the Wellcome Trust the Travelling Research Fellowship to work for two years in the UK with Prof. M. E. Boulton at the Department of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University and Prof. T. G. Truscott, School of Chemistry and Physics, Keele University. In 2002-2003 she was awarded Senior Fulbright Fellowship to work with Prof. J. D. Simon at the Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA. In 2003 she was appointed a Lecturer at the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University where she continues her research on the mechanisms involved in creating oxidative stress and light-induced damage to the retina and potential preventative treatments. To date Dr Różanowska has published 47 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. Since 2007 she is an Associate Editor for Photochemistry and Photobiology. She has also served as Guest Editor for Symposium-in-Print on Melanins and Symposium-in-Print on Light-Induced Damage to the Retina.

Michael Boulton

NC

Dirk Van Norren

Dirk van Norren is emeritus professor ophthalmic physics and retired director of TNO Human Factors. He studied action spectra and histology of light damage in pigmented and albino rat, and discovered that their data strongly resembled those of primates. In 2011 he published a review of action spectra.

Jennyfer Hunter

Jennifer Hunter Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology in the Flaum Eye Institute at the University of Rochester.  She has a secondary appointment in Biomedical Engineering and is also a member of the Center for Visual Science.  Her research interests include mechanisms of light-induced retinal damage and development of non-invasive fluorescence imaging techniques to study retinal function in healthy and diseased eyes

David Jack Lund

Mr. David Jack Lund is an Emeritus Scientist with the US Army Institute for Surgical Research located at Fort Sam Houston, TX.  He has been responsible for investigations of the deleterious effects of laser radiation on retina and vision since 1968 when the US Army established a research team to develop a laser bioeffects database to support laser permissible exposure guidelines. He is a member of the ANSI Z136 Committee for the safe use of lasers, a consulting member of the Optical Radiation Subcommittee of ICNIRP and chair of CIE TC6-15 which authored CIE 203:2012, A computerized approach to transmission and absorption characteristics of the human eye.  Mr. Lund holds a B.S. degree in physics (Western Illinois University, 1961).

Yvan Arsenijevics

Yvan Arsenijevic, neurobiologist, graduated as biologist in the department of pediatric and genetics, Geneva University, Switzerland, in 1990. He pursued his training in neurosciences at the University of Geneva working on peptide receptors in the hypothalamus and the pituitary. From 1995 to 1997, he joined the team of Professor Sam Weiss at the University of Calgary, Canada, who isolated and identified neural stem cells during development and in the adult brain. Back in Switzerland from 1997 to 2000, Yvan Arsenijevic worked with Professor Patrick Aebischer at the University of Lausanne, a specialist of neurodegenerative diseases: YA continued to study neural stem cells and demonstrated that the adult human brain contains multipotent progenitors in different brain areas. He also took part of the first studies of gene therapy mediated by lentiviral vector in a rodent model of Parkinson’s disease. He developed his own laboratory at the service of Ophthalmology at the University of Lausanne at the Jules-Gonin Eye Institute focused on retinal degeneration and regenerative medicine. He collaborated with Professor Derek van der Kooy for the first isolation of adult human retinal stem cells. The laboratory has now worldwide recognition in the field of retinal stem cells and ocular gene therapy. Such developments are based on studies at the molecular levels of actors involved in the degenerative processes. Now YA is Associate Professor and has published around 70 papers and book chapters and produced one patent. To facilitate preclinical studies, he generated, with Bruce Whitelaw at the University of Edinburgh, transgenic pigs developing retinal dystrophies.

David Sliney

Dr. David H. Sliney holds a Ph.D. in biophysics and medical physics from the University of London (Institute of Ophthalmology), an M.S. in physics and radiological health from Emory University and a B.S. in physics in from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. 

From 1965 to 1995 he was Chief of the Laser Branch, Laser Microwave Division, of the US Army Environmental Hygiene Agency at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.

With the creation of the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine in 1995, he became Program Manager, Laser/Optical Radiation Program.  He has been active in the establishment of health and safety standards for protection of the eye and skin from lasers and high intensity optical sources. 

He is a sub committee chairman on the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Committee Z 136, Safe Use of Lasers, and serves on the ANSI Committee for RP-27, Photobiological Safety of Lamps and Lighting Systems.  He is chairman of the Safety Committee of the Laser Institute of America.  He was an editor of the scientific journal, Health Physics from 1976 to 1986 and is currently an associate editor of Photochemistry and Photobiology and has served on the editorial boards of Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, and Annals of Ophthalmology and Glaucoma. He has published over 250 scientific papers on subjects related to laser and optical hazards and laser applications in medicine and surgery.  He received a Fulbright Hayes Fellowship to lecture at an International Summer School on Radiation Protection, held in Herceg Novi, Yugoslavia, in 1976. 

Dr. Sliney was chair­man of the Physical Agents Committee of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (1987-1997).  He has also served as a temporary advisor to the World Health Organization at several meetings relating to lasers, RF, magnetic fields and infrared and ultraviolet radia­tion, and coauthored a 1,000 page book:  Sliney and Wolbarsht, "Safety with Lasers and Other Optical Sources," Plenum Publishing Corp., New York, 1980.  He also co-authored a book:  Sliney and Trokel, "Medical Lasers and Their Safe Use," Springer-Verlag, New York in 1992. 

He is a member of the Optical Society of America, the American Society of Photobiology, the Health Physics Society, the International Commission on Occupational Health, the International Occupational Hygiene Association, the Society of Photo Optical Instru­mentation Engineers, the European Society of Photobiology, the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery and the American Welding Society.  He serves as a US delegate to the Committee TC 76, "Lasers," of the International Electrotechnical Commission and is Convener of Working Group 1 of that committee.  Dr. Sliney served three four-year terms as a member of the Inter­national Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection (1991-2003), and continues as a member of the Standing Committee IV, Optical Radiation.  He is currently a director, and is a past-chairman of the Laser Safety Committee of the American Society for Lasers in Medicine and Surgery, a member of the Laser Safety Committee of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and chairman of the Laser Safety Committee of the Optical Society of America.  He served as co­chairman of the 1976 and 1984 Gordon Conferences on Lasers in Medicine and Biology.  He was a member (1982 1985) of the Technical Electronic Product Radiation Safety Standards Commit­tee of the FDA Center for Devices and Radio­logical Health.  He was a member and past chair­man of the Research Advisory Committee of the Lighting Research Institute (1980-1995), and was a member of the Panel on Impact of Video Viewing on Vision of Workers, Committee on Vision, National Research Council, 1981 83.  He is past chairman of the American Industrial Hygiene Association Committee on Non Ionizing Radiation.  He is Director of Division 6 (Photobiology) of the International Commission on Illumination (CIE).  He re­ceived the Department of the Army Decoration for Meritorious Civilian Service in 1978.  He was elected to three four-year terms (1992-2004) to the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement (NCRP).  In 2005 he was awarded the George M. Wilkening Award and the Schawlow Award of the Laser Institute of America.

Christian Corbé

NC

Barbara Klein

Dr. Klein is Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and Adjunct Professor of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.  She has over 35 years of experience in epidemiologic research of age-related eye diseases and ocular complications of diabetes, including cataract, glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy.

Dr. Klein and her research team developed the Wisconsin System for Classification of Cataracts from Photographs, a classification and grading system for the subtypes of age-related cataract and their severity.  It was initially developed for use in the Beaver Dam Eye Study (one of two major epidemiologic studies of which Dr. Klein is co-principal investigator) and has since been used in other epidemiologic studies around the world.  She has coauthored a number of reports concerning sunlight and ultraviolet light and their relationship to age-related macular degeneration and cataract in the Beaver Dam Eye Study.  Significant findings include that summertime sunlight exposure is related to the incidence of age-related macular degeneration; that ambient ultraviolet B light exposure is related to risk of cortical cataract in men; and that the use of sun-sensitizing medications interacts with sunlight exposure to influence the risk of cortical cataract.

Giuliana Silvestri

Dr Silvestri holds the post of Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon at the Royal Hospitals Belfast and Reader at the Centre for Vision and Vascular Science at Queen’s University Belfast. She has a specialist interest in medical retinal and inherited retinal disorders. Dr Silvestri’s research programme is centred on the study of both monogenic and complex ophthalmic disorders and focuses on the investigation of genetic predisposition and environmental influences in age-related macular degeneration and the characterisation of genotypic-phenotypic correlations in retinitis pigmentosa in Northern Ireland. Dr Silvestri is Training Programme Director for the Northern Ireland Deanery and Chair of NICRN Vision.

Claude Gronfier

Dr Claude Gronfier is senior research associate at Inserm (CR1, INSERM). He did his PhD at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, and a post-doc fellowship in Sleep Medicine at the Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston USA. He has been doing research for 18 years on the circadian timing system, precisely on the mechanisms by which light synchronizes the biological clock to the 24h day. His current projects are focused on the mechanisms involved in non-visual photoreception, on the effects of light on physiological functions (alertness, cognition, mood), and on the design of lighting strategies for the treatment of circadian, mood, vigilance, and sleep disorders. He has published over 40 articles, several books and book chapters, and over 50 abstracts. He is directing the Platform for Human Chronobiology in Lyon (HEH Hospital). He has been on the board of Directors of the Society for Light Treatment and Biological Rhythms (SLTBR), the scientific committee of the European Sleep Research Society, and currently is on the board of Experts of the French National Institute of Sleep and Vigilance (INSV), the board of the French Sleep Research Soceity, and on two CIE committees (TC6-62 and TCC6-63). He has been consulted by the workgroup working on the effects of LED (AFSSET 2010), and participated in the report on the effects of light on Health (SCENIHR 2012). He is currently coordinating 2 research projects with the European Space Agency in extreme environments where solar light is unavailable for several weeks (Concordia, solar winter, South Pole) or several months (Mars-520, simulated space mission to Mars, Moscow).

Kwoon Wong

My undergraduate major at the University of Texas at Austin was biochemistry, and as I started my PhD career at Harvard I was convinced that I wanted to study cancer biology.  But an immensely satisfying rotation in John Dowling’s lab lured me into the world of neurophysiology, and I have been studying the visual system ever since.  For my thesis in John’s lab, I studied glutamate receptors and transporters at the photoreceptor-bipolar cell synapse in fish retinas.  Then, at the Society for Neuroscience 2002 conference, I saw David Berson’s fascinating presentation on his seminal studies of the melanopsin-expressing ganglion cells, a novel mammalian photoreceptor implicated in non-image-forming visual behaviors.  Awestruck by David’s talk, I decided to do my postdoctoral work with him at Brown.  During my six years in his lab, I investigated the ganglion-cell photoreceptors’ light responses, their synaptic interactions with other retinal cells, and their signaling to the circadian clock in the hypothalamus.  Since Jan 2010, I have been an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan, where I have continued to study these exotic ganglion cells.

Howard Cooper

HM Cooper is currently Head of the Department of Chronobiology at the Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute (INSERM U846) in Lyon France. : He obtained his BSc at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (1969) and a PhD at Florida State University (1973). He has held positions at the Museum of Natural History (Paris), the CNRS (Brunoy, France) the University of Queensland (Brisbane) and INSERM (Lyon, France). He is also Outstanding Professor at the University of Pretoria, South Africa and Associate Researcher Institute of Primate Research, Nairobi, Kenya. He chairs the CIE committee TC6-62 "Action Spectra and Dosimetric Quantities for Circadian and Related Neurobiological Effects".An elected member of the IBRO African Regional Committee (ARC) and international advisor to the Society of Neuroscientists of Africa (SONA), he is actively involved in the organisation of conferences, neuroscience schools and workshops in the Africa. He has made major contributions to the field of circadian photoreception and in particular on the mechanisms and role of melanopsin in photic light detection. During his career he has published 80 articles in international journals, including Nature, Neuron and Journal of Neuroscience. HM Cooper has also established two major research facilities: The Platform for Human Chronobiology in Lyon (HEH Hospital) that is part of the European Network of Affiliated Centres for Human Chronobiology. The African Chronobiology Facility in the Institute of Primate Research (IPR, Nairobi Kenya).

Anya Hurlbert

My primary research aim is to understand how the human brain constructs colour and how it uses colour in everyday visual and cognitive tasks, from object recognition to colour naming and object labelling to mood and emotion interventions. I trained as a physicist (BA 1980, Physics, Princeton University), physiologist (MA 1982, Cambridge University), neuroscientist (PhD 1989, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT), and physician (MD 1990, Harvard Medical School), and draw on this multidisciplinary background to combine behavioural, computational, and physiological approaches in my research. One of my current projects (funded by the EPSRC) combines behavioural and computational approaches to understand human colour and object perception in real-world scenes using a novel LED-based illuminator. My other research interests in colour perception encompass the understanding of the biological bases of colour preference, both in normal development and in autistic spectrum disorders, and inter-individual variations in colour naming, both in normal trichromacy and anomalous colour vision. In 2004, I co-founded the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle, of which I am currently Director. This is one of the UK’s largest academic units focussed on neurosciences, with 52 university academic staff (15 clinical) and more than 30 honorary clinical academics, with particular strengths in systems and cognitive neuroscience, neuropharmacology, clinical neuroscience, and behavioural sciences. Outside of the university, I served as chair of the Colour Group (GB) (1999-2001), and am currently a member of the Visiting Committee for MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (2002 – present) and Scientific Trustee of the National Gallery (2010 -- present).

Georges Zissis

NC

Christophe Martinsons

Christophe MARTINSONS received a Ph. D in Physics from the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne in 1998. Up to 2000, he held a research scientist position at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). From 2000 to 2007, he worked in the field of home automation for the HAGER Group. In 2007, he joined CSTB to head the Lighting, Electricity and Electromagnetism division.

He currently conducts research and consultancy work in the field of combined daylighting and artificial lighting in order to promote energy-efficiency in buildings while providing the best visual comfort conditions for users. His approach to lighting is put forward in the new French building energy code (RT 2012). 

For the past four years, Christophe Martinsons has also been leading several laboratory measurement campaigns for French governmental agencies (ANSES and ADEME) while working on independent expertise concerning health and environmental aspects of solid-state lighting.

Rolf Bergman

Dr. Rolf Bergman is currently an independent consultant (sole proprietor) in lighting technology and measurements.

After graduating with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1972 from the University of Minnesota, Dr. Bergman worked for over twenty-eight years at GE Lighting, all at Nela Park, Cleveland, OH, both as an individual contributor and manager in lamp technology. While at GE Lighting he was involved new product and process development, measurement capability and industry standards. Dr. Bergman was named Chief Scientist, Lamp Technology in 1992, a position he held until retirement in 2001.

Currently, among other consulting work, he serves as an assessor of lighting laboratories for accreditation to NVLAP, and accrediting body organized at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Dr. Bergman served as President of the CIE/USA National Committee from 11/2003 to 11/2008. He also is the chair of CIE TC 6-47, the group that is producing a global standard for photobiological risk evaluation of lamps. He serves as a member of the IESNA Technical Procedures and Photobiology Committee and he is a member of CORM, an industry group that advises NIST on measurement needs in US industry.

While at GE he was the author or co-author of 19 US Patents and published about 20 Journal articles with an additional 20 to 30 internal GE reports

Werner Horak

Werner Horak, graduated physicist, worked for about 15 years in a development department for optoelectronic devices in Berlin for another about 15 years at Siemens AG, Munich
since 1999 fulltime engaged with radiation safety issues (ionizing and non-ionizing) at the Siemens Corporate Office for Radiation Safety
chairman of the German national standardization committee DKE GK 841 “optical radiation safety and laser equipment”, convener of IEC TC 76/WG 9 "non-laser sources", until 2011 chairman of CIE TC 6-55 “safety of LEDs”

Charles Hunt

Charles E. Huntis Professor of Electrical Engineering and Design at the UC Davis (since 1986), a Principal Investigator for the California Lighting Technology Center (CLTC) and the Distinguished Member of Technical Staff of the Lighting Group of the EU’s Institute for Energy Research of Catalonia (IREC) in Barcelona, where he is currently on assignment through 2012.  His major research emphasis is in the areas of cathodoluminescent phosphor technology, energy-efficient lighting devices, field-emission vacuum microelectronics, and issues relating to color quality and human experience of artificial lighting devices.  Since 2010, a major focus has been examination of the human response, physiological and emotive, to artificial lighting devices.  He is a Charter Member of the Blue Light Group.  He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, (co-) author of over one hundred and fifty five refereed publications, including nine co-edited books, and fourteen US patents.  From 1997-2004 he served as Editor of the journal, Solid-State Electronics.  Since 2006, he is a Member of the Board of Vu1 Corporation, a publicly-traded company which manufactures energy-efficient lighting devices, and was also CTO of Vu1 in 2007-08.  He is a Co-Founder of Advanced Luminescence LLC., a startup company in field-emission lighting devices.  He is an Executive Committee Member of the Electrochemical Society Luminescent and Display Materials Division. www.ece.ucdavis.edu/~hunt