The International Society for Contact Lens Research (ISCLR) will hold its 21st research symposium in Porto, Portugal, from August 21-26, 2022. Every two years, ISCLR brings together its global membership, industry partners, keynote speakers from related and emerging fields, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to address key challenges and identify future research needs to advance the field and the industry. The Society’s membership comprises around 100 university, industry-based and independent researchers working across a wide range of basic and clinical areas, plus leading contact lens clinicians.
“The biennial ISCLR meeting is a one-of-a-kind gathering of the world’s contact lens research leadership. Over the course of four days, global experts from academia, clinical science and industry will focus on key challenges to advance safer, healthier, more comfortable contact lens development and wear,” said Fiona Stapleton, president of the ISCLR.
Attendance at the meeting is limited to the Society’s members, representatives from its corporate advisory board, invited keynote speakers and graduate students/post-doctoral researchers who win prestigious travel grants to attend. This year’s meeting includes four tracks, each with three sessions. They will cover ground-breaking research on myopia and contact lens-based myopia control, the ocular response to contact lenses, contact lens materials and solutions, and how research can advance the contact lens field.
The first ever ISCLR Research Grants were awarded in 2021, following a competitive review of applications specific to the most relevant topics in the field as identified during the 2019 meeting in Singapore; the results will be presented in Porto. The two grants were awarded to Jerome Ozkan from UNSW Sydney, Australia (“The effect of face mask wear on the ocular surface and contact lens microbiome”) and María J. González-García, University of Valladolid, Spain (“Tear molecules as predictive and monitoring biomarkers for contact lens discomfort”).
The Ruben Medal, the Society’s highest honor for an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of contact lens-related research, will also be presented. Selected by vote of the previous recipients, the 2019 recipient was UC Berkeley’s College of Chemistry Professor Clayton Radke. The 2022 honoree will be announced at the President’s Gala Dinner during the meeting.
ISCLR has provided a record-setting 21 travel grants to support the attendance of graduate students and post-doctoral researchers, based on competitive scientific abstract submission of original work not presented elsewhere.
“The generosity of our Corporate Advisory Board (CAB) is allowing the next generation of contact lens researchers to share their work and make personal connections that are so vital in our field. We are delighted to support the development of some of the brightest and best students in the world”, said Philip Morgan, ISCLR immediate past president. “The ISCLR would like to thank its CAB members—Alcon Laboratories, CooperVision, Gelest, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Menicon, Ophtecs, Seed, Shin-Etsu Silicones of America—for their support”.
At the meeting, the Society will also announce the Hikaru Hamano Travel Fellowship, which acknowledges the leading student abstract as voted on by ISCLR council members.
The ISCLR was established in 1978 and comprises a group of global experts from all aspects of contact lens research. For more information, please visit isclr.org.
