Henri Leinonen participated in the FASEB Biology & Chemistry of Vision Conference (June 22–26, 2026) in Southbridge, MA, USA. This meeting is one of the premier international meetings dedicated to photoreceptor biology, retinal signaling, and mechanisms of degeneration and rescue. The conference brought together leading scientists studying visual transduction, molecular pathways of retinal disease, and emerging therapeutic strategies ranging from gene editing to neuroprotective drug discovery.
Henri delivered an invited symposium talk, “Inhibition of intracellular calcium and cAMP signaling as a therapeutic target in retinal degeneration.” The presentation outlined recent work from the Leinonen Retina Laboratory demonstrating how modulation of second messenger homeostasis, particularly the cAMP-Ca²⁺ axis, can reduce cell stress signaling and stabilize dysfunctional retinal networks in degenerative conditions (Leinonen et al. 2024). The talk highlighted systems level pharmacology approaches and new unpublished data on how the TMB drug combination reshapes signaling, metabolic, and glial pathways across multiple RD models. In addition, Henri presented a poster featuring the doctoral research of Katri Vainionpää, titled “Robust retinal catecholamine system changes in murine retinitis pigmentosa”.
FASEB’s Biology & Chemistry of Vision series is highly regarded for its interdisciplinary atmosphere, combining molecular biochemistry, functional signaling, retinal circuitry, and translational research. This year’s meeting emphasized emerging paradigms in photoreceptor biology, cell stress pathways, cyclic nucleotide signaling, and innovative pharmacological and gene therapy interventions, offering a fertile environment for scientific exchange and new collaborations.
The LRL thanks the organizers for an excellent meeting and looks forward to future participation.
Reference: Leinonen, H., Zhang, J., Occelli, L.M. et al. A combination treatment based on drug repurposing demonstrates mutation-agnostic efficacy in pre-clinical retinopathy models. Nat Commun 15, 5943 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50033-5
(Group photo: Courtesy of Joanna Engstrom, FASEB)