Coles Colloquium 2024

The Coles Colloquium is held every year to share developments in ophthalmology, named in honour of long-time supporter Mr Ken Coles AM.

This year's Colloquium will be held on 12th June 2024 (Wednesday), 6:00 to 8:00 pm.

The Keynote Address will be delivered by Professor Ian Constable AO, Founding Director and Patron of the Lions Eye Institute in Perth. 

About the Keynote speaker: 

An internationally renowned ophthalmologist, Professor Ian Constable AO trained in ophthalmic surgery in Sydney at the Prince Alfred Hospital and Boston, at the Schepens Eye Institute and Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School.

At the Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory, Professor Constable lead all the preclinical development for ocular tumor treatment, which has since been used for thousands of melanoma patients. In 1975, he was appointed as Professor and Chairman of Ophthalmology in Perth, Western Australia, and in 1983, he founded the Lions Eye Institute—an independent research and clinical establishment now with 300 research, clinical and support staff. Having stepped down as Founding Director in 2009, Professor Constable is now the Lions Eye Institute's Patron.

Professor Constable also established a comprehensive retinal service for international patients from Southeast Asia, trained retinal specialists from numerous countries and served as President of the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology and the Asia Pacific Vitreoretinal Society. For over four decades, he continuously held National Health and Medical Research Council grants from 1976 until 2018. He also helped project manage three programmes from laboratory all the way up to FDA approvals and exits. These programmes were the: polymeric cornea, an AAV gene therapy for macula degeneration listed on NASDAQ and the Zen glaucoma implant sold to Allergan.

Having ceased surgery from 2018, Ian currently advises one listed biomedical gene therapy company, a University and two families investing substantial funds in biomedical translational research and commercialisation.

Agenda: 

6:00 - 6:10 pm - Welcome and Introduction - Prof Peter McCluskey AO

6:10 - 6:40 pm - Keynote address: Prof Ian Constable AO: Evolving trends in medical research funding

6:40 - 7:10 pm - Medical case presentations

- Dr Nick Russell: Between a rock and a hard place: Acute rock hard eye syndrome 

- Dr Sarah Chaudhry: It’s all in the genes: Updates on RPE65 gene therapy

7:10- 8:00 pm - Light refreshments