Prof. Claus Cursiefen delivers the 2025 von Graefe Lecture at DOG

At this year’s annual meeting of the German Ophthalmological Society (DOG), Prof. Dr. Claus Cursiefen, Speaker of SFB 1607 and Director of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Hospital Cologne, delivered the prestigious von Graefe Lecture. This distinction follows his receipt of the von Graefe Award in 2024. Since its establishment in 1876, the award has now gone to the Cologne University Eye Hospital for the fourth time.

In his keynote lecture titled “Corneal Transplantation: Restoring Sight to the Blind”, Prof. Cursiefen explored the remarkable developments in corneal transplantation, the oldest and most successful form of organ transplantation in medicine. He highlighted recent progress in cell and stem cell therapies, pharmacological endothelial cell activation, and artificial corneal replacements. Innovative therapeutic strategies such as UVA crosslinking also offer new hope for preventing immune reactions in vascularized corneal scars — a major cause of global blindness.

Prof. Cursiefen’s lecture emphasized the close interplay between clinical innovation and fundamental research — a hallmark of the SFB 1607’s mission to better understand and treat age-related eye diseases.