EOPRA-2 in Working Dogs: Webinar

The International Working Dog Association (IWDA) is hosting a free webinar on Early Onset Progressive Retinal Atrophy-2 (EOPRA-2), a newly identified inherited eye disease in dogs. This session will be led by Dr. Aguirre, M.D., Ph.D., and his research team from the University of Pennsylvania.

This will be an opportunity to hear directly from the researchers before their findings are published. The team will share what is currently known about EOPRA-2, the genetic basis of the condition, and the impact it may have on breeding and placement decisions. Attendees will also gain guidance on how to interpret test results and the implications these may carry for a dog’s ability to successfully graduate as a working partner.

Don’t miss this chance to be among the first to learn about this emerging condition and how it may affect your program.

Time: Wednesday, Oct 8th, at 10am EST

Registration: Register on Zoom, here.

Webinar Topics

• • EOPRA in Working Dogs
  • Overview of the disease
  • Summary of methods for case identification
  • Key obstacles encountered in the research process
  • Explanation of the discovery
  • Statistics on variants identified
  • Prospects for future testing and clinical applications

About the Speakers

Gustavo D. Aguirre is Professor of Medical Genetics and Ophthalmology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, and works with dog models of iinherited eye and retinal degeneration. His lab focuses on model identification, disease gene discovery, establishing disease metrics and defining molecular pathways linking the gene and mutation to the disease, and developing gene-based and other therapies for translational applications.

Dr. Aguirre earned his undergraduate, veterinary, and doctoral degrees at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also completed a residency in ophthalmology before serving as a post-doctoral fellow at the Wilmer Ophthalmological Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He joined the faculty at Penn in 1973, where he rose to hold joint professorial appointments in the Veterinary and Medical Schools, and returned to Penn in 2004. Between 1992-2004 he was the Caspary Professor of Ophthalmology at the James A. Baker Institute of Cornell University. His work has been supported by the NIH, FFB and other organizations. Dr. Aguirre has received numerous awards among which are an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Göteborg, Sweden, The Foundation Fighting Blindness Trustee Award, Scientist of the Year, Heart Sight Miami/Foundation Fighting Blindness Award, O.N.C.E. International Prize for R&D in Biomedicine and New Technologies for the Blind, the Alcon Research Institute Award, and he was a co-recipient of the Paul Kayser International Award in Retina Research. He is a Fellow of Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. In 2017, he received the Proctor Medal from the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology for outstanding research in basic or clinical sciences as applied to ophthalmology, in 2020 was co-recipient of the Sanford and Sue Greenberg Prize to End Blindness, and in 2023 was co-recipient of the Helen Keller Prize for Vision Research.

Leonardo Murgiano is a Senior Research Investigator and co-director of the Sylvia M. Van Sloun Laboratory for Canine Genetics at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, where he focuses on whole-genome sequencing and genetic mapping of inherited diseases. He earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Biotechnology at the University of Perugia (Perugia, Italy) and completed his Ph.D. in Cellular and Molecular Biology at the University of Tuscia (Viterbo, Italy). After postdoctoral fellowships in Animal Genetics at the University of Bern in 2014 (Bern, Switzerland) and in Bioinformatics and Genetics at the University of Liège in 2017 (Liège, Belgium), he undertook a postdoctoral fellowship in Genetics and Molecular Vision at the University of Pennsylvania under Dr. Gustavo Aguirre. He subsequently assumed his current role as Senior Research Investigator in the same group.

Jessica K. Niggel is a Research Scientist with vast experience in many wet lab techniques (including PCR, sequencing, immunohistochemistry, and DNA extraction from standard and non-standard media). She has earned her B.Sc. Degree in Molecular Biology at the University of Wales in 2009 (Bangor, Wales, UK) and M.Sc. in Biomolecular Sciences- Molecular Cell Biology from Vrije Universiteit in 2014 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). As part of her M.Sc. degree, she studied Developmental Biology at the University of Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain). She obtained her MPhil degree in Biomedical Sciences from Ulster University in 2024 (Coleraine, Northern Ireland, UK). Jessica manages the Sylvia M. Van Sloun Laboratory, and her roles also include data analysis, maintenance of the sample archive, as well as ancestry data reconstruction.

The Sylvia M. Van Sloun Laboratory for Canine Genetics has two major lines of research: (1) investigation of naturally occurring canine models for Mendelian diseases, and (2) the study of eye diseases with complex inheritance mechanisms in dogs. The lab’s research is primarily focused on ocular diseases, particularly retinal disorders, but also extends to neurological and other inherited conditions.