Congrats Pietro for your oral presentation at Retina 2021!  Melita Kaltak (ProQR Therapeutics NV) was selected as Poster Award Winner at the latest Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Society meeting for her work on an antisense oligonucleotide-mediated therapeutic approach for one of the most common Stargardt disease-causing variants in ABCA4. Very well done Melita!  At the recent European Society for Human Genetics meeting, Münevver Burcu Cicekdal presented her work on abca4 regulatory elements in Xenopus tropicalis. Keep it up!  At the recent European Society for Human Genetics meeting Eugenio Pugni from the Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine presented his latest work. In a collaboration with several other Italian institutions in the Naples area, he constructed a ABCA4 knock-out pig model which is currently being used to investigate and develop gene therapy options for Stargardt disease. Impressive work Eugenio!  Münevver Burcu Cicekdal wins the poster prize @ the 18th International Xenopus Conference 20218/30/2021
Münevver Burcu Cicekdal from Vleminckx lab at Ghent Univeristy and StarT member won the poster prize at the 18th International Xenopus conference for her work on rare human genetic disorders using Xenopus tropicalis as a model organism. Well done Burcu! 
Our manuscript in which we unravel complex structural variants involving CEP78, using long-read sequencing, in patients with cone-rod dystrophy with hearing loss was provisionally accepted by Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology. Keep an eye on the official release date here.
The StarT consortium would like to participate in a fundraising activity 'StarT in action!' on the occasion of the International Day of Rare Diseases 2021 on February 28.
Everyone knows the unicorn, but no one has ever actually seen one. Unicorns only exist in a world of myth and fantasy. On the other hand, people with a rare disease do exist. And they are numerous… About 500,000 Belgians have a rare disease. On the occasion of the International Day of Rare Diseases 2021 on February 28, we participate in the RadiOrg campaign “Not a Unicorn”. Because people with a rare disease are not unicorns. They really exist. And you can help make them visible! Sporty top athletes from UZ Gent and UGent will walk, run or cycle between 17 and 28 February 2021. They will be sponsored for this. Would you like to sponsor our running, walking and cycling actions for 'StarT in action!' You can support StarT in action here: Please spread the word via your social media! Follow us on Twitter @ITN_StarT and Instagram start_itn Thank you in advance! StarT fundraising team |
