Foundations
Foundations
Here's a look at documents from U.S. foundations
Featured Stories
Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust: Digital Upgrade to Histopathology Service Reduces Wait Time for Cancer Diagnosis
LONDON, England, April 9 -- The Royal Marsden National Health Service Foundation Trust issued the following news on April 8, 2026:* * *
Digital upgrade to histopathology service reduces wait time for cancer diagnosis
State-of-the-art scanners and advanced image management software allow for more efficient service.
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The Royal Marsden's Histopathology Service is now fully digitised, allowing cancers to be diagnosed faster and more accurately.
Royal Marsden histopathologists are now using an entirely digital system, including state-of-the-art scanners and advanced image management software. ... Show Full Article LONDON, England, April 9 -- The Royal Marsden National Health Service Foundation Trust issued the following news on April 8, 2026: * * * Digital upgrade to histopathology service reduces wait time for cancer diagnosis State-of-the-art scanners and advanced image management software allow for more efficient service. * The Royal Marsden's Histopathology Service is now fully digitised, allowing cancers to be diagnosed faster and more accurately. Royal Marsden histopathologists are now using an entirely digital system, including state-of-the-art scanners and advanced image management software.These allow them to analyse images using digital tools, reducing the number of hours that they need to spend looking through microscopes.
The scanning digitisation of tissue samples helps the clinicians to better understand the makeup and behaviour of a patient's tumour, which can inform treatment decisions. It also provides the capability to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to better personalise treatment and generate new diagnostic tests in the future.
Turnaround times are faster compared to previous manual processes
Royal Marsden histopathologists have been completing their Royal College of Pathologists certified training and validation programme, and are digitally reporting 70 per cent of cases on a day-to-day basis, improving turnaround times and therefore providing a more efficient service.
This digital programme includes the established Integrated Pathology Unit (IPU) at The Royal Marsden and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, which is part-funded by The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.
The IPU is a tissue-based laboratory that develops complex and highly quantitative approaches to tissue analysis in the space of translational and clinical research.
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Original text here: https://www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk/news-and-events/news/digital-upgrade-histopathology-service-reduces-wait-time
Haymarket Books and Mellon Foundation Announce Third Cohort of 'Writing Freedom' Fellows
NEW YORK, April 9 -- The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation issued the following news on April 8, 2026:* * *
Haymarket Books and Mellon Foundation Announce Third Cohort of 'Writing Freedom' Fellows
Twenty Writers Impacted by the Carceral System Recognized for Meaningful Contributions to Contemporary Literature
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Haymarket Books and the Mellon Foundation today announced the third cohort of the Writing Freedom Fellowship, recognizing twenty emerging, mid-career, and established poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers whose lives and work have been impacted by the carceral system.
Launched ... Show Full Article NEW YORK, April 9 -- The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation issued the following news on April 8, 2026: * * * Haymarket Books and Mellon Foundation Announce Third Cohort of 'Writing Freedom' Fellows Twenty Writers Impacted by the Carceral System Recognized for Meaningful Contributions to Contemporary Literature * Haymarket Books and the Mellon Foundation today announced the third cohort of the Writing Freedom Fellowship, recognizing twenty emerging, mid-career, and established poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers whose lives and work have been impacted by the carceral system. Launchedin 2024, Writing Freedom provides fellows with professional development support, sustained community-building opportunities, and an award. With this third cohort, the fellowship has now honored 60 writers whose work expands and reshapes the landscape of American literature.
The 2026 fellows span genres and generations with writing that confronts and illuminates themes ranging from kinship, exile, and loss to militarism, migration, and life on death row. Together, their writing challenges existing narratives about system-impacted lives while imagining more just futures ahead.
"Writing Freedom is recognition and growth and community and, now, lineage," said 2025 Writing Freedom Fellow B Batchelor. "It is the best thing to ever happen for my writing, for the marginalized and oft-silenced community I represent, and for the verdant path ahead."
The United States imprisons more people than any other nation in the world. Beyond prisons and jails, the U.S.'s sprawling carceral system encompasses immigrant detention and deportation, parole and probation, the family policing system, and involuntary commitment. Sustained by criminalization, surveillance, and punishment, this system negatively impacts the lives of countless individuals and their families.
Writers impacted by the carceral system are underrepresented in the literary world. In addition to censorship and retaliation, many are subject to an array of harms including isolation, financial hardship, social stigma, family separation, and the lasting consequences of confinement. Writing Freedom recognizes and elevates the urgency and brilliance of these voices whose contributions are vital to our society and to our literary culture.
"These twenty extraordinary writers underscore the creative power and vision of those who push the possibilities of the written word despite the confines of our country's carceral system," said Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation. "As part of Mellon's robust commitment to the literary arts, we are proud to support them and the remarkable work they continue to create."
"The community of writers we are championing grows with the recognition of these tremendous writers. Haymarket Books is proud to continue elevating their necessary work," said Jyothi Natarajan, Program Director at Haymarket Books. "With the dramatic expansion of the carceral state, the work of Writing Freedom couldn't be more urgent."
Following a multi-step nomination and review process, the 2026 Writing Freedom Fellows were selected by a group of five esteemed writers: Whiting Award-winning writer Jaquira Diaz, poet and California Book Award-winner Safia Elhillo, former Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez, esteemed writer and AIDS historian Sarah Schulman, and Atlantic staff writer Jenisha Watts.
"The 2026 cohort is a diverse group of immensely talented poets, essayists, fiction writers, playwrights, and journalists doing incredibly important work despite unimaginable obstacles," shared acclaimed writer Jaquira Diaz, a member of the 2026 Writing Freedom Selection Committee. "The work of these twenty writers is wise, intellectually rigorous, deeply moving, innovative, meaningful, artful. What a gift to discover their work. I am rooting for them all."
2026 Writing Freedom Fellows
Reginald Dwayne Betts is a poet, memoirist, and essayist. His next memoir, Off the Cuff, will be released by W.W. Norton. Betts has earned multiple fellowships, including one from the MacArthur Foundation. He is the founder and CEO of Freedom Reads.
Mahogany L. Browne is a writer, playwright, organizer, and educator. An NY Emmy, NAACP, and Audie award finalist, Browne is a 2022 Kennedy Center Next 50 fellow and inaugural poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center. Her collection Chrome Valley won the 2024 Paterson Poetry Prize. Her YA novel was longlisted for the National Book Award. She holds an honorary doctorate from Marymount College.
Demetrius "Meech" Buckley, a poet and a creative nonfiction writer, is published in The Rumpus, The Yale Review, the Marshall Project's Life Inside, and Prism. His essay "Death Around Da Corner" won Editor's Choice Selection in CRAFT's 2024 essay contest. His collection Here Is Home won Cave Canem's 2021 Derricotte/Eady Chapbook Prize. Buckley edits Apogee's Freedom Meridian.
Jill Damatac, a writer and a filmmaker, is the author of Dirty Kitchen, a food memoir of growing up undocumented. Born in Manila, Philippines, in the final years of the Marcos dictatorship, Damatac immigrated to the United States as a child.
Barbara Fant is the author of three poetry collections, the most recent of which is Joy in the Belly of a Riot. A native of Ohio, she is a Healing Centered Engagement specialist who believes in the healing power of the arts.
Benjamin Frandsen is a poet, essayist, and advocate whose writing on incarceration, redemption, and resilience appears in exCHANGE magazine, Iconoclast, PEN America's prison writing anthologies, UCLA Magazine, The Massachusetts Review, and other outlets. As founder/executive director of the Ben Free Project, he hosts the Ben Free Podcast and teaches in California prisons.
Kennedy Amenya Gisege is a Kenyan visual artist and the author of the book Twenty-One Birthdays from Lost Kite Editions. He believes his village Ibacho gave the world a lot of good things, but he wants to be the best thing that came from there.
Sheree L. Greer is a Black lesbian writer and founder of Kitchen Table Literary Arts in Tampa, Florida. Published widely, Greer holds fellowships from VONA/VOICES, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice, Yaddo, Ragdale, and Lost and Found Lab. Her award-winning nonfiction has been named in Best American Essays.
Randall Horton is the recipient of two American Book Awards. His latest memoir, Dead Weight: A Memoir in Essays, is published by Northwestern University Press. Horton is a professor of English at the University of New Haven.
Donny Jackson is a lifelong poet, a doctor of clinical psychology, and a documentary television producer. Jackson was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2021, Kirkus Reviews named his poetry collection, boy, one of the "Best Indie Books of the Year." Jackson currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
Lyle C. May is a journalist and author of Witness: An Insider's Narrative of the Carceral State. His writing appears in numerous publications and law journals. When not writing, May frequently lectures on the politics and policies of mass incarceration for university classes, academic conferences, and online events.
Saretta Morgan is the author of the poetry collection Alt-Nature. Her work is informed by lived practices at the intersections of grassroots social and environmental justice movements, and by personal and intergenerational experiences of incarceration and land stewardship. She engages poetry and landscaping as technologies to map and practice collective health and belonging.
Jassmine Parks is a Detroit-born poet and multidisciplinary artist. Her work has appeared in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, Detroit MetroTimes, Clearline Magazine, among others. She has received fellowship support from the Watering Hole, Torch Literary Arts, PEN America, Vermont Studio Center, and Kresge Arts in Detroit.
Alan Pelaez Lopez, born in Mexico, is a Black Zapotec writer based in Oakland, California. Their creative writing and theoretical work takes up forced migration, incarceration, solitary confinement, and crip futures. Following Indigenous linguistic activism, they write against vanishment.
Karisma Price is the author of I'm Always So Serious, which was a New York Times Editors' Choice Pick. She is a 2025 Whiting Award winner and holds an MFA in poetry from New York University. She is currently an assistant professor of English at Tulane University.
Adam Roberts is a memoirist and essayist from Long Island who spent twenty-six years incarcerated in New York State. Released in October 2025, he writes about survival, transformation, and the human cost of mass incarceration. His work has appeared in the Marshall Project's Life Inside, Hyperallergic, and the Vera Institute of Justice's News & Stories.
Watani Stiner is a memoirist and former Black Power activist whose writing explores revolution, exile, captivity, and reconciliation with family and history. He is the author of To Stumble Is Not to Fall: A Revolutionary's Journey from United States' Injustice and lives in Oakland, California, where he continues writing and mentoring younger voices.
Derek R. Trumbo Sr., an essayist and playwright, is a multi-time PEN Prison Writing Award winner. Creator of the series "Never Eat the Candy on Your Pillow: A Commonsense Guide to Prison," published by Prism, Trumbo is currently polishing his short story collection Palpable Prisons. He mentors, instructs, and facilitates writing circles with currently incarcerated writers.
Marco Verdoni is an MFA graduate of the New Writers Project and a Fulbright scholar from Saginaw, Michigan. His award-winning work has appeared in Fourth Genre and Akashic Books' Prison Noir anthology.
Bernardo Wade serves as assistant editor and poetry editor for Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora. He is a Wallace Stegner fellow and has published his poems in The Nation, The Sewanee Review, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. He is infatuated with Ed Roberson's question, "Can you O.D. on life?"
Building on a legacy of scholarship and cultural production, Mellon's Imagining Freedom initiative supports artistic and humanistic work that centers the voices and knowledge of people who have experienced the impacts of incarceration. The initiative aims to interrupt the harmful narratives that uphold the carceral system and counteract its most enduring, least visible impacts. To date, Imagining Freedom has made more than 100 grants totaling more than $110 million.
Haymarket Books is committed to supporting incarcerated readers and writers and to furthering abolitionist politics--whether through building space for political education and programming centering decarceration; donating books to incarcerated readers through Haymarket's Books Not Bars program; cultivating authors who are currently incarcerated; and through the Writing Freedom Fellowship.
For more information about the Writing Freedom Fellowship, please contact writingfreedom@haymarketbooks.org.
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About Haymarket Books
Celebrating 25 years, Haymarket Books is a radical, independent, nonprofit book publisher based in Chicago with a mission to publish books that contribute to struggles for social and economic justice. Haymarket strives to make their books a vibrant and organic part of social movements and the education and development of a critical, engaged, and internationalist Left. Connect with Haymarket Books on Bluesky, Instagram, and YouTube. Learn more at haymarketbooks.org
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About The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation's largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through our grants, we seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.
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Original text here: https://www.mellon.org/news/haymarket-and-mellon-announce-third-cohort-of-writing-freedom-fellows
Foundation for Economic Education Posts Commentary: Degrees of Seriousness on the National Debt
DETROIT, Michigan, April 9 -- The Foundation for Economic Education posted the following commentary on April 8, 2026, by Christopher E. Baecker, Bexar County Taxpayer Association vice president:* * *
Degrees of Seriousness on the National Debt
Greater freedom is the answer.
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We hit an ignominious milestone recently when the national debt crossed $39 trillion. Naturally, regular citizens have chimed in about what's to blame, who's at fault, what can be done, or whether it even matters.
The discussion usually takes one or more of the following shapes.
If you're new to the conversation, just ... Show Full Article DETROIT, Michigan, April 9 -- The Foundation for Economic Education posted the following commentary on April 8, 2026, by Christopher E. Baecker, Bexar County Taxpayer Association vice president: * * * Degrees of Seriousness on the National Debt Greater freedom is the answer. * We hit an ignominious milestone recently when the national debt crossed $39 trillion. Naturally, regular citizens have chimed in about what's to blame, who's at fault, what can be done, or whether it even matters. The discussion usually takes one or more of the following shapes. If you're new to the conversation, justdipping your toes in for the first time, you might think we can simply cut defense spending, or eliminate "waste, fraud, and abuse." Considering how many military bases we have around the world, that's a legit angle.
Likewise, when you factor in the Pentagon's numerous failed audits and run-of-the-mill household items running into the thousands of dollars, you could kill two birds with one stone.
We're just scratching the surface here, though.
If you're somewhat serious, in addition to those, you would do well to point out discretionary spending. Those are monies that Congress approves annually, such as farm subsidies, spending on education and housing, etc. The nearly trillion-dollar defense budget is part of it.
However, all told, such spending barely makes up a quarter of the overall budget--if that.
If you're more serious, you could include all the aforementioned items, plus the programs on autopilot: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. They are the three biggest items in the federal budget, eating up over half.
Interest on the debt, another expenditure on autopilot, recently overtook defense as the fourth largest item--but cannot be tackled directly. Only by addressing all the rest will that one be pushed down in the process.
Social Security's financial health has been feeling the strain of an ever-growing number of beneficiaries and a declining birthrate.
By some estimates, what is in the Social Security Trust Fund will be insufficient to pay benefits within the next decade.
Regarding health insurance, its very structure is handicapped by its third-party payer nature. When consumers don't know the actual price of the service they're receiving, they're less judicious in their spending.
Most Americans choose a low-deductible insurance plan where, after a visit or two to the doctor, all they pay is a $20 or $50 copay. Few have an idea of what the full menu of prices is for medical services.
At that point, general tax revenue, i.e., what comes out of your federal tax withholding, will be tapped to make up the difference.
One of the few less efficient enterprises than that is the government. That it is the genesis of Medicaid and Medicare exacerbates the problem.
Regardless, you know that you've encountered someone very serious about debt and deficits when he discusses attacking it at its root: the government's ability to service it.
Investors (remember to check your 401k) will continue to buy US Treasurys if they believe Uncle Sam will continue to have the ability to pay the interest. That ability rests on the taxing power it has over productive citizens.
So, why not cut tax rates and reduce that ability?
History has shown that when they are reduced and/or the code is simplified, the revenue flows to Treasurys actually increase. This is partly due to taxpayers changing how they file, but it can also be attributed to the signal they're getting from the government: "We'll take less from you, and you won't have to spend as much time filing."
Though some would convert that time into more leisure, that might very well entail more spending. What would juice economic growth even more is if some of that spending was via investing.
Alas, more growth creates more revenues, which gives buyers of US debt even more confidence to continue lending to reliably profligate politicians. What then?
But, if you're really serious, go further: if we're serious about reducing the national debt, the ability of the federal government to incur any more must be seriously curtailed.
In much the same way "waste, fraud, and abuse" will never really go away until spending is reduced on a large scale, the spending itself will never really go away as long as there are tax revenues and borrowing to finance it.
Whether or not this is the biggest problem facing us is up for discussion. Being a personal financial literacy teacher who walks the walk, I find such staggering debt levels to be outrageously appalling.
The upside is that the most organic, effective solution just so happens to coincide with a higher level of freedom, and subsequent prosperity for citizens.
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Christopher E. Baecker is Vice President of the Bexar County Taxpayer Association and is an adjunct lecturer of economics at Northwest Vista College in San Antonio.
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Original text here: https://fee.org/articles/degrees-of-seriousness-on-the-national-debt/
Foundation Fighting Blindness: Illuminating the Future - Highlights From Investing in Cures Summit 2026
COLUMBIA, Maryland, April 9 -- The Foundation Fighting Blindness issued the following news on April 8, 2026:* * *
Illuminating the Future: Highlights from Investing in Cures Summit 2026
At ICS 2026 in Boston, leading researchers, clinicians, and industry pioneers shared the latest advances in gene therapy, precision genetic medicine, and gene-agnostic approaches for inherited retinal diseases.
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The 2026 Investing in Cures Summit (ICS) brought together 185 patients, caregivers, donors, scientists, clinicians, and industry leaders in Boston, Massachusetts, for a two-day gathering organized ... Show Full Article COLUMBIA, Maryland, April 9 -- The Foundation Fighting Blindness issued the following news on April 8, 2026: * * * Illuminating the Future: Highlights from Investing in Cures Summit 2026 At ICS 2026 in Boston, leading researchers, clinicians, and industry pioneers shared the latest advances in gene therapy, precision genetic medicine, and gene-agnostic approaches for inherited retinal diseases. * The 2026 Investing in Cures Summit (ICS) brought together 185 patients, caregivers, donors, scientists, clinicians, and industry leaders in Boston, Massachusetts, for a two-day gathering organizedby the Foundation Fighting Blindness and the RD Fund. Held under the theme Illuminating the Future: Where Insight Meets Innovation, the summit offered a rare opportunity to witness the full arc of inherited retinal disease (IRD) research, from foundational science to late-stage clinical breakthroughs, in a single room.
What emerged over the course of the weekend was a picture of a field that has moved decisively from hope to evidence. Novel therapies are in or approaching pivotal trials. Individuals who were functionally blind have regained meaningful vision. A new generation of precision genetic technologies and gene-agnostic approaches is broadening the horizon for patients who cannot be served by single-gene strategies. And the RD Fund, the Foundation's venture philanthropy arm, has demonstrated a 10x return of donor dollars into outside capital, with multiple portfolio companies now in the public markets or approaching FDA approval.
Friday Evening, March 6
Welcome Remarks
Jason Menzo, CEO, Foundation Fighting Blindness
Warren Thaler, Foundation Board Member
CEO Jason Menzo opened the evening by welcoming attendees from across the patient, philanthropic, and scientific communities, noting that nearly a third were attending a Foundation event for the first time. He invited the room to build new connections, reflecting that while an IRD diagnosis can feel isolating, the ICS community represents a global network of people who refuse to accept that blindness is inevitable.
Menzo paused to honor two individuals whose contributions define the Foundation's history. Founder Gordon Gund, whose presence in the room was greeted with sustained applause, was recognized as the person without whom none of this work would have been possible. Menzo also shared a tribute to Board Chair Karen Petrou, who had passed away two weeks earlier on what would have been her birthday. Rather than a moment of silence, he asked the room to raise a glass to the word she said often: "Onward!"
Board member Warren Thaler, a longtime friend and colleague of Gordon Gund who came to the Foundation without any personal connection to blindness, offered brief remarks on why people like him give their time and resources. "If you hear the story, it can make stuff happen," he said. "Please help us spread the message."
Keynote: The State of Genetic Medicine, and the Promise Left Behind
Jim Wilson, MD, PhD, Founder, GEMMABio; Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Keynote speaker Dr. Jim Wilson, one of the founding figures of modern AAV gene therapy, delivered a wide-ranging address tracing genetic medicine from his earliest days to the urgent challenges the field faces today. Wilson began by sharing how he came to gene therapy through Jean Bennett, MD, PhD, whom he supervised as a medical student during his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. When Bennett arrived at his Penn lab in 1993, announcing she was going to cure blindness, Dr. Wilson said, "I basically said, 'How can I help?'"
From that starting point, Dr. Wilson traced the field through landmarks the room knew well, the LCA2 (RPE65) trial that became LUXTURNA(R), the development of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) therapy, and the cascade of genetic interventions now underway. What has most impressed him, he said, is how profoundly different outcomes are when you correct a gene at its root rather than treat symptoms. He described children with Angelman syndrome gaining the ability to say "Mama" after genetic intervention, and babies with SMA regaining motor function within months of treatment. "Who would have predicted that until we did the experiment?"
"I don't remember in the history of medicine where we had fundamental solutions to diseases that could fundamentally change the trajectory... and we as a society are not developing them."
But Dr. Wilson's keynote was also a call to action. He named a hard truth he called "the great abandonment": the reality that pharmaceutical companies have largely stepped back from ultra-rare disease gene therapy because individual markets are too small and the one-time treatment model doesn't generate recurring revenue. He described a growing health equity crisis, "too rare or too poor," where the universe of diseases that science can treat is expanding faster than the business models to fund their development. Dr. Wilson closed by describing his new ventures, GEMMABio (which has treated its first patients in clinical trials) and Rare Therapeutics (designed to ensure every ultra-rare disease patient can access transformative gene therapy), and suggested the Foundation Fighting Blindness is uniquely positioned to help break through these systemic barriers.
Saturday, March 7
Welcome and Why This Moment Matters
Jason Morris, Incoming Board Chair, Foundation Fighting Blindness
The Saturday program opened with remarks from Jason Morris, newly appointed Board Chair, following the passing of Karen Petrou. Mr. Morris spoke personally, sharing that his 23-year-old son Jack was diagnosed with an IRD at age five and now has approximately 10 degrees of vision remaining. "Vision loss is not abstract," he said. "It affects independence, mental health, opportunity, and the daily reality of entire families."
Mr. Morris acknowledged the governance strength of the Foundation, crediting the succession planning that allowed for a smooth transition in leadership. He thanked Gordon Gund for over 50 years of refusing to accept a world without treatments for blinding diseases, and challenged the room: "Progress only matters if it reaches people, and that requires continued action and continued funding."
Venture Philanthropy at Work: Impact Meets Innovation
Rusty Kelley, PhD, MBA, Managing Director, RD Fund
Dr. Rusty Kelley, Managing Director of the RD Fund, presented a comprehensive picture of the Foundation's venture philanthropy arm over seven years into its mission. The RD Fund sits at the intersection of traditional philanthropy and venture capital, channeling not-for-profit donor dollars into for-profit investments that turn science into therapies. Financial returns are recycled back to the Foundation to further the mission.
In seven years, the RD Fund has committed $95 million across 18 portfolio companies, co-investing with more than 50 top-tier investment firms. Those companies have attracted over $1 billion in outside capital, a 10x multiplier on every donor dollar invested. Twelve international clinical trials have been supported, with more than 350 patients treated. Five trials have achieved clinical proof of concept, including four gene therapy programs demonstrating functional benefit and one gene-agnostic strategy slowing disease progression.
Dr. Kelley highlighted the breadth of the portfolio, spanning early- to late-stage vision loss, gene-specific and gene-agnostic approaches, IRDs, dry AMD, and geographic atrophy. New portfolio additions Agnos Therapeutics and Beacon Therapeutics have broadened the portfolio into a cell-based renewal strategy and a major XLRP (X-linked retinitis pigmentosa) program. Opus Genetics, founded by the Foundation and RD Fund, has completed a public company merger and is valued at over $500 million.
Session 1: A History of Innovation
This session explored advances in AAV genetic technologies for inherited retinal diseases, highlighting translational progress, clinical outcomes, and strategies to enhance durability and safety.
Moderator: Rusty Kelley, PhD, MBA, RD Fund
Atsena Therapeutics
Shannon Boye, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Atsena Therapeutics
Dr. Shannon Boye opened the scientific program with a journey tracing the entire arc of modern ocular gene therapy, from her earliest graduate school experiments to Atsena's Phase 3-ready pipeline. She began by grounding the room in the fundamentals: gene therapy delivers a healthy copy of a gene into the retina via adeno-associated virus (AAV), allowing cells to produce a protein they could not make on their own.
"We have children who can see snowflakes for the first time, young adults who can read without assistance, adults who can ski again. The testimonies are real and growing."
Dr. Boye's path began at the University of Florida, where she trained under Dr. Bill Hauswirth and developed her first gene therapy constructs for LCA1. After years of working with pharmaceutical partners who ultimately shelved their programs, "On any given Tuesday, upper management can say we don't want to be in this therapeutic area anymore," she and her husband, Sanford Boye, MSc, founded Atsena Therapeutics with foundational support from the RD Fund.
Atsena's lead program for LCA1 (GUCY2D) has now fully enrolled its Phase 1/2 trial, 15 patients treated, with some having data beyond five years. Results include a clean safety profile with no serious adverse events related to the gene therapy, and compelling functional gains. One young patient saw snowflakes for the first time. Another woman can navigate outside at night for the first time in her life. Another was able to read the labels on her children's Halloween candy. Scientifically, some patients have shown 10,000-fold improvements in retinal sensitivity. Atsena plans to move into a Phase 3 pivotal trial in 2025, targeting FDA approval in 2028.
Atsena's key differentiating technology is AAV.SPR, a proprietary AAV vector engineered to spread multiple millimeters beyond the injection site. This matters because conventional vectors only transduce (deliver the gene into) cells immediately adjacent to the subretinal bleb. To treat the fovea with conventional AAV, surgeons must inject directly under it, a risky procedure in patients with already fragile retinas. AAV.SPR allows peripheral injection while gene expression spreads to the critical foveal region.
This same technology is driving Atsena's XLRS (X-linked retinoschisis) program, where 15 adult patients and several pediatric patients have been treated. Structural improvements, closure of the foveal schisis cavities that characterize the disease, are being observed, with corresponding functional gains. The FDA has indicated the program may qualify for a streamlined pivotal trial based on Phase 1/2 data, with enrollment beginning imminently. Atsena is also advancing a dual-AAV program for Usher syndrome type 1B (MYO7A), which is IND-ready.
Opus Genetics
Ben Yerxa, PhD, President, Opus Genetics
Dr. Ben Yerxa, the Foundation's former CEO and creator of the Investing in Cures Summit, told the story of Opus Genetics with unusual candor, describing near-financial-collapse, the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank, staffing down to a single employee, and an 11th-hour merger that transformed the company into a publicly traded biotech with an over $500 million fully diluted market cap.
The journey began in 2018, with Dr. Jean Bennett at the University of Penn, therapy programs for ultra-rare conditions, including LCA5 (affecting roughly 170 people in the U.S.), and a potential transaction fell apart when the underlying pharmaceutical company changed its mind. The RD Fund served as Opus's anchor investor through its founding, providing $10 million of a $19 million seed round and ensuring the Foundation held 75% control of the company. The explicit goal: build a company oriented around patients.
The scientific results justified the persistence. Opus dosed its first LCA5 patient, a 26-year-old man functionally blind since age two, in August 2023. Thirty days post-treatment, he could read the large E on the eye chart. The second patient, Lindsey Rambo, later appeared on Good Morning America as a "medical miracle." The company went 3-for-3 on early efficacy signals. Despite multiple near-bankruptcy moments, an 11th-hour merger with Ocuphire Pharma (a company holding $30 million in cash following a Phase 2 failure in diabetic retinopathy) gave Opus a path to the public markets. Since going public, the company has raised multiple rounds of institutional capital, landed major investors including Perceptive Advisors, and is now covered by 13 analysts, all with buy ratings.
Opus's pipeline spans LCA5 (with Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy, a priority FDA designation to expedite the development and review of innovative cell therapies, tissue engineering products, and gene therapies meant to treat serious conditions and pivotal enrollment underway), Best disease (BEST1 mutations, with first patient data at the Macula Society driving significant investor interest), autosomal dominant RP (RHO mutations), and additional programs to be announced. Dr. Yerxa's advice to the room on fundraising: "Never turn money away."
Beacon Therapeutics
Lance Baldo, MD, CEO, Beacon Therapeutics
Dr. Lance Baldo, CEO of Beacon Therapeutics and a former head of ophthalmology at Genentech, introduced his company as a new member of the RD Fund portfolio. Beacon is an ocular gene therapy company focused on both rare and prevalent retinal diseases. Its lead asset, laru-zova, targets X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP), a progressive, devastating condition affecting approximately 10,000 people in the U.S. with virtually no treatment options.
XLRP is caused by mutations in the RPGR gene. Laru-zova delivers a full-length, codon-optimized RPGR construct subretinally, enabling the missing protein to localize to the connecting cilium of photoreceptors and allowing dormant cells to begin functioning again. In the open-label DAWN Phase 2 study, patients have achieved 5, 10, 15, and sometimes 30 letters of visual gain on low luminance visual acuity testing, consistent and robust across treated subjects.
The Phase 2/3 VISTA trial has enrolled 75 subjects across three arms (high dose, low dose, and untreated control), is fully blinded, and completed enrollment in July 2025. Top-line data are expected in the second half of 2026. Beacon deliberately elevated low luminance visual acuity and detailed mapping of central vision to primary endpoint status, learning from challenges other programs faced with mobility testing as a primary measure. Dr. Baldo credited the FDA for collaborative engagement on trial design, noting the agency's explicit compliment on the rigor of Beacon's trial design. He closed by thanking the RD Fund and Goldman Sachs as Beacon's two most recent investors: "You are the company you keep."
Session 2: Navigating Endpoints for Effective Clinical Trials
Experts discussed how endpoint selection drives trial success, balancing scientific rigor, regulatory alignment, and commercial relevance to bring sight-saving therapies to market faster.
Moderator: Todd Durham, PhD, SVP Clinical and Outcomes Research, Foundation Fighting Blindness
Alkeus Therapeutics
Carlos Quezada-Ruiz, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Alkeus Therapeutics
Dr. Carlos Quezada-Ruiz, a retina specialist and veteran drug developer who previously worked at Genentech, presented Alkeus Therapeutics' approach to Stargardt disease, the most common inherited macular dystrophy, affecting approximately one million people worldwide. Alkeus's lead compound, gildeuretinol (deuterated vitamin A palmitate), addresses the disease at its biological root.
Mutations in ABCA4 disrupt how vitamin A is metabolized in the retina, causing toxic byproducts to accumulate and ultimately killing photoreceptors. By substituting a single hydrogen atom with a heavier element called deuterium, Alkeus makes vitamin A more stable and resistant to forming the dimers responsible for Stargardt progression. The result is a once-daily oral tablet, a treatment modality that Quezada-Ruiz described as potentially the "holy grail" for a disease like Stargardt, where surgical or injectable approaches carry meaningful risk.
More than 400 patients have now received gildeuretinol acetate across early, moderate, and advanced disease stages, with follow-up data extending as long as seven years. The safety profile has been clean, and clinical signals are emerging: statistically and clinically significant stabilization of low luminance visual acuity, and slowing of atrophic lesion growth. Alkeus is now launching a Phase 3 trial in approximately 230 patients with advanced Stargardt, using atrophic lesion growth as the structural primary endpoint and low luminance visual acuity as a key secondary, a design aligned with the FDA and international regulators. An interim analysis provision could accelerate filing.
On the broader topic of endpoint strategy, Dr. Quezada-Ruiz offered a direct message: engage with regulatory agencies early and often, without fear. "The agency is not here to tell us no. It's to try to figure out what's rational for our objective and work with us on whether it's feasible."
Sepul Bio
Zuhal Butuner, OD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer, Sepul Bio
Dr. Zuhal Butuner, CMO of Sepul Bio (a unit of Laboratoire Thea), presented two RNA-based programs targeting LCA10 and Usher syndrome type 2A. Unlike gene therapy, which delivers a corrected copy of a gene, RNA therapy works at the messenger RNA level. It is transient, requiring repeat dosing approximately every six months, but avoiding the permanent modifications associated with gene editing.
Dr. Butuner shared a hard-won lesson from the field. Sepul Bio's LCA10 program (Sepofarsen) showed compelling efficacy in early trials, noting a carpenter who lost his sight in his teens was able to return to carpentry after treatment, yet the trial failed to meet its primary endpoint in Phase 3. Approximately 50 patients have remained on Sepofarsen through a compassionate use program since then. "It worked, but we didn't hit the primary endpoint. And that's frustrating." The failure, she explained, was partly driven by too few patients per cohort and too much variability across a heterogeneous disease, compounding the limitations of standard visual acuity measurement at very low vision levels.
This experience is now shaping a more rigorous approach. For its Phase 3 LCA10 program, Sepul Bio is working with Dr. Todd Durham and the Foundation to validate the Freiburg Visual Acuity Test, a tool offering more precise measurement at very low vision levels than the standard ETDRS chart. While the FDA has not yet accepted this measure for trial efficacy, Dr. Butuner plans to present validation data alongside the Foundation to make the case. For their Usher syndrome type 2A program, enrollment is approaching target at 65 of 90 patients, with strong confidence that remaining patients in screening will complete the cohort.
Fireside Chat: From Baseline to Finish Line - Measuring Success in Clinical Trials
Rachel Huckfeldt, MD, PhD, Mass Eye and Ear
Mark Pennesi, MD, PhD, FARVO, Retina Foundation of the Southwest
Moderator: Todd Durham, PhD, Foundation Fighting Blindness
The session concluded with a frank discussion featuring two clinician-scientists working at the intersection of clinical trials, natural history, and regulatory science. Their central message: endpoint selection is not an afterthought; it defines the trial. A measurement that fails to capture real-world benefit can doom a therapy that works.
The conversation addressed the gap between statistical significance and clinical meaningfulness, the challenge of standard visual acuity charts at very low vision levels, the value of natural history data in anchoring trial design, and the cultural shift required to bring regulators, clinicians, and patient advocates into alignment before a trial begins rather than after it fails. The Foundation's RUSH2A Natural History Study was cited repeatedly as a model; its data have now served multiple companies in designing eligibility criteria and aligning endpoints with validated disease progression patterns.
Dr. Huckfeldt and Dr. Pennesi both emphasized a simple truth that is often ignored in practice: success requires shared definitions. When clinicians, sponsors, regulators, and patients are not aligned on what meaningful change looks like from the outset, even compelling data can fail to translate into approved therapies. The Foundation's role in building that alignment, through natural history studies, endpoint validation, and regulatory advocacy, was named as one of its most valuable contributions to the field.
Session 3: Rewriting Vision: The Next Frontier of Precision Genetic Therapies
As genetic technologies mature, precision approaches are redefining what is possible in retinal therapeutics. Emerging platforms and translational insights are enabling more tailored, durable, and scalable genetic interventions for retinal disease.
Session 3 Moderator: Alicia Kemble, PhD, RD Fund
Amber Bio
Jacob Borrajo, PhD, Founder & CEO, Amber Bio
Dr. Jacob Borrajo, who trained at the Broad Institute at MIT, founded Amber Bio after a graduate school insight that now shapes the company's entire platform. Analyzing ClinVar (a database of disease-causing genetic variants), he found that of approximately 6,000 genes associated with genetic disease, about 2,000 have 10 or more pathogenic variants in patient populations. The one-by-one model of gene therapy cannot scale to reach these patients.
Amber Bio's answer is an RNA splice editing platform that corrects disease-causing mutations at the RNA level. Rather than editing the DNA itself, their CRISPR-based system intercepts and corrects the flawed genetic message the cell receives, fixing the instruction before it can cause damage. Dr. Borrajo described testing 12 variants in the lab, expecting failure, and then watching cells finally turn bright green on the fourth plate. "I felt this sense of wonder and excitement, thinking, this approach that people said is impossible actually seems to be working." That experiment became the founding insight of Amber Bio.
The lead program targets USH2A (Usher syndrome type 2A), estimated to cover approximately 60% of USH2A patients with mutations in exons 1 through 13. In small rodent models, the platform achieves 70% RNA editing efficiency in non-human primates, approximately 50%, well above the ~18% threshold shown to be sufficient to rescue the disease phenotype in humans. An Investigational New Drug (IND) filing is planned for 2027 with a first-in-human trial targeting 2028.
Amber Bio is also integrating AI and large language model tools to accelerate the design of new RNA editors, moving development cycles from years to months, and exploring whether "zero-shot design" (where an AI-designed molecule works on the first attempt) is achievable. The company's investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Lilly Ventures, Hummingbird, and the RD Fund.
Ascidian Therapeutics
Murray Abramson, MD, MPH, Chief Development Officer, Ascidian Therapeutics
Dr. Murray Abramson brought a personal and institutional perspective to Ascidian's platform. A former faculty member at Duke who led global clinical operations at Biogen, where he witnessed SMA therapy transform a fatal pediatric disease, he joined Ascidian after his own family's experience with ALS deepened his conviction that clinical acceleration is a moral imperative.
Ascidian has developed an RNA exon-editing platform, delivered via AAV, capable of replacing large segments of mutated RNA--up to ~3.7 kb per edit--enabling correction of a broad range of mutations within large genes such as ABCA4. In Stargardt disease, this approach has the potential to address approximately 60-70% of patients across mutation types. The company's lead program has received FDA IND clearance, and the STELLAR Phase 1/2 trial is currently enrolling across multiple U.S. sites with low-, mid-, and high-dose cohorts, including pediatric patients. In non-human primates, the platform has demonstrated ~30% restoration of target protein expression at six months, exceeding the ~10-20% levels shown in preclinical models to be sufficient for phenotypic rescue.
Ascidian's single-vector approach differentiates it from dual-vector strategies: manufacturing is simpler, surgical injection volume is reduced, and there is no need to co-deliver two AAVs to the same cell. The company also holds a large collaboration with Roche for CNS applications beyond the eye.
Session 4: Panel Discussion: Advances and Challenges in Retinal Cell Therapies
This session highlighted the therapeutic potential of cell-based approaches while addressing the scientific, regulatory, and translational challenges that influence their path to patients.
David Gamm, MD, PhD, Opsis Therapeutics (Moderator & Speaker)
Mandeep Singh, MD, PhD, CEO, Agnos Therapeutics
Sally Temple, PhD, R&D Director, Luxa Bio
The afternoon panel addressed one of the most scientifically compelling and logistically complex frontiers in retinal medicine: using transplanted cells to restore vision. Dr. David Gamm noted the Foundation's involvement in an ambitious ARPA-H-funded whole eye transplant program before the discussion turned to the nearer-term reality of cell-based therapies.
Dr. Sally Temple, whose work on neural stem cell biology spans decades, described the unique challenges of cell therapy in the immune-privileged eye, including the careful balance between immune suppression needed to protect transplanted cells and the risks that suppression entails. Dr. Mandeep Singh of Agnos Therapeutics, a new RD Fund portfolio company, discussed early-stage work on cell-based renewal strategies with the potential to rebuild rather than simply preserve retinal tissue.
The panel reached a shared conclusion: the path forward for cell therapy likely involves combination approaches, pairing gene therapy or neuroprotection with cell replacement to create a therapeutic environment hospitable to regeneration. The field is also navigating the challenge of endpoint design in pivotal trials, where the subtler functional gains that patients experience after cell therapy may not be captured by standard visual acuity measures designed for different treatment paradigms.
Session 5: Gene-Agnostic Approaches
This session highlighted therapeutic strategies that work across many retinal diseases by acting on common biological drivers rather than specific genetic defects.
Session 5 Moderator: Preeti Subramanian, PhD, VP Preclinical Research, Foundation Fighting Blindness
Zhongmou Therapeutics
David Gao, PhD, CSO, Zhongmou Therapeutics
Dr. David Gao presented Zhongmou Therapeutics' optogenetics program for late-stage retinitis pigmentosa, a gene-agnostic approach specifically designed for patients whose photoreceptors have already degenerated and who cannot benefit from gene replacement. Rather than restoring a missing gene, optogenetics reprograms surviving retinal cells (primarily ganglion cells) to become light-sensitive by introducing a channelrhodopsin protein via a single intravitreal AAV injection.
Zhongmou's proprietary channelrhodopsin has been engineered for high light sensitivity, designed so that patients can respond to natural light without the goggles or external devices required by earlier optogenetic approaches. The company conducted a 12-patient clinical trial in China using an investigator-initiated trial mechanism, treating patients with late-stage RP across multiple dose levels with a sham control arm. Results: 70-80% of treated patients achieved BCVA improvement greater than 0.3 log units; average improvement was approximately 0.6 log units, equivalent to four to five lines on an eye chart. One patient who had been forced to leave college due to her vision loss enrolled in an MBA program after treatment. Another rode a bicycle alone for the first time.
An IND has been cleared in the U.S., with a Phase 1/2 trial expected to dose its first patients within months. While the program begins in late-stage RP, the biology suggests potential applicability to earlier-stage disease and other indications, including Stargardt, where early signals from the Chinese trial were also encouraging.
Nacuity Pharmaceuticals
Jami Kern, PhD, Chief Clinical Officer, Nacuity Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Jami Kern presented Nacuity's gene-agnostic approach to retinitis pigmentosa, targeting oxidative stress, one of the shared biological drivers of photoreceptor death across many forms of retinal degeneration. As rods die in RP, the retina becomes hypoxic, triggering a vicious cycle of oxidative damage that accelerates cone death. NACA (N-acetylcysteine amide), taken twice daily as an oral tablet, is a potent antioxidant designed to penetrate cells efficiently and interrupt this cycle.
Nacuity's Phase 2 proof-of-concept trial enrolled 49 participants with RP associated with Usher syndrome. After two years, patients receiving NACA experienced nearly 50% slower photoreceptor loss compared to placebo, a treatment effect consistent across the study population. "Cutting the rate of cell loss in half is not incremental. It's meaningful." Based on this data, the FDA granted Nacuity Breakthrough Therapy designation, in addition to previously granted Orphan Drug and Fast Track designations.
"Behind every data point, there's a person. A person adjusting to night blindness, a teenager whose field of vision is narrowing, a parent wondering how long they'll be able to see their child's face clearly."
Dr. Kern credited the Foundation Fighting Blindness explicitly, not only for funding, but for the RUSH2A Natural History Study data that allowed Nacuity to design eligibility criteria, putting them in the best position to demonstrate a treatment effect. Confirmatory trials are now being planned, with enrollment expected to start within months and expansion to the U.S. and Europe. All but three of the Phase 2 participants elected to continue on their assigned treatment for three additional years when given the option, a meaningful signal of patient confidence.
SparingVision
Kali Stasi, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, SparingVision
Dr. Kali Stasi, a cornea surgeon turned gene therapy CMO, joined SparingVision after a career that included faculty work at Penn, a Wharton business degree, and leadership roles at Novartis and several biotechs. Her experience at Novartis, where an RLBP1 gene therapy program with compelling efficacy was ultimately canceled, leaving a drug that had to be discarded as patients emailed her for access, has sharpened her focus on what separates science from medicine that actually reaches patients.
SparingVision has two gene-agnostic programs targeting cone photoreceptors. SPVN06 is a subretinal AAV therapy that delivers DNA of two distinct isoforms of the NXNL1 gene, rod-derived cone viability factor (RDCVF) and RDCVFL, to rods, protecting them from the oxidative and metabolic damage that drives degeneration in RP and potentially dry AMD. Its Phase 1/2 trial (PRODIGY) has now completed enrollment of 33 patients, with two and a half years of safety data showing no serious adverse events. Efficacy data are expected in approximately one year, supported by AI-powered machine learning analysis alongside standard statistical methods.
The second program, SPVN20, targets dormant cones, degenerating cells that cannot transduce light, having lost their outer segments, but persist in a structurally altered, weakened state. By delivering a novel ion channel (GIRK1) via intravitreal AAV, SparingVision aims to reactivate phototransduction in these cells, restoring rather than merely preserving visual acuity in more advanced disease. A Phase 1/2 trial (Nirvana) is underway in Europe, with no adverse safety signals observed. The two programs are designed to be complementary, SPVN06 protecting vision in earlier-stage disease, SPVN20 potentially restoring it in later stages, with future co-administration possible.
Session 6: Therapeutic Strategies Spanning IRDs and Dry AMD
An overview of the current therapeutic landscape across inherited retinal diseases and dry AMD, highlighting key modalities, shared biological themes, and platform approaches with potential to translate across rare and prevalent retinal indications.
Harvard Medical School: The Science of Cone Survival
Connie Cepko, PhD, Bullard Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Connie Cepko, a foundational figure in retinal developmental biology, offered the summit's most expansive scientific presentation, a 20-year retrospective of her lab's quest to understand why cones die when rods are lost and what can be done to save them.
The central puzzle: cones don't carry the disease genes responsible for most RP. So why do they degenerate? Dr. Cepko's lab discovered that cones begin dying when rods in their immediate neighborhood are lost, suggesting environmental rather than intrinsic causes. Investigating gene expression changes across four different mouse models of RP, they identified three common pathological processes at the moment of cone death: metabolic failure (cones are not receiving adequate glucose), oxidative damage, and inflammation from activated microglia.
To determine whether these processes are causal, the lab delivered 84 different AAVs expressing 47 different genes across three mouse models. Seven emerged as candidates for gene-agnostic neuroprotection. Highlights include NRF2, a transcription factor that simultaneously combats oxidative damage and inflammation; several secreted anti-inflammatory factors that regulate microglia-neuron interactions; CD47 ("don't eat me"), which protects cones from microglial engulfment; and three metabolic strategies ensuring cones receive adequate energy through improved glucose or lactate supply. NRF2 was also tested in two oxidative damage models thought to mimic AMD. In one model, it completely protected the RPE and the photoreceptors that depend on it.
"I don't think curing, for that number of disease genes, for small numbers of people, is really going to be doable in terms of the funding models. So that's why we took the approach of prolonging vision."
Dr. Cepko framed her lab's strategy explicitly: keep photoreceptors alive long enough for curative gene therapy or editing to reach them, and serve patients whose disease gene has not yet been identified or cannot yet be targeted. She also raised the possibility that these findings could have implications well beyond the retina. The three drivers her lab identified, metabolic disruption, oxidative stress, and inflammation, appear as common threads across many neurodegenerative diseases, including AMD, glaucoma, and potentially vascular dementia.
Closing Remarks
Rethinking What's Possible in Retinal Disease
Amy Laster, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer, Foundation Fighting Blindness
Dr. Amy Laster closed the scientific program with a synthesis of the day's themes organized around three imperatives.
First, the toolkit: the field has moved from single-mechanism thinking to platform thinking, from one gene, one therapy to approaches capable of reaching broad patient populations regardless of genetic background. AAV gene therapy has matured. RNA editing and exon editing are expanding coverage. Cell therapy is moving from concept to clinic. Gene-agnostic strategies are now showing clinical proof of concept.
Second, proving benefit: even the most elegant science can be stalled if it can't demonstrate its value in the right clinical framework. Endpoint selection defines a trial from the outset, shaping feasibility, timeline, interpretability, and whether a positive result becomes an approved therapy. Dr. Laster called on the field to treat endpoints as innovations, to be pursued with the same rigor as biology.
Third, scaling up: real progress requires shared infrastructure. The Foundation's My Retina Tracker(R) Registry, natural history studies, scientific advisory board, and preclinical research funding have quietly underpinned many of the advances heard throughout the day. Connecting rare and common retinal conditions accelerates discovery and broadens trial networks. Progress happens through coordination, not in silos.
Her charge to the scientific community: prioritize long-term, durable approaches from day one. Bring patients and regulators into conversations earlier. Invest in the talent pipeline. Share failures as openly as successes. "Every month we save in this collective timeline matters to patients and families watching their vision change in real time."
Closing Remarks: The Road Ahead is Paved with Opportunity
Jeffrey Freed, MBA, Foundation Board Director; Chair, Audit & Risk Committee
Jeffrey Freed, Foundation Board Director and himself a person living with RP diagnosed in 2007, closed the summit with news that brought the room to its feet. He announced a $50 million matching gift challenge from the Gordon and Laura Gund Foundation, the largest philanthropic commitment in the RD Fund's history.
Every new or increased commitment made to the RD Fund will be matched dollar for dollar by the Gund Foundation, up to $50 million in additional funding. Given the RD Fund's existing 10x multiplier of donor dollars into outside capital, the effective leverage of the match rises to 20-30 times philanthropic investment. Freed set a first milestone: $10 million in donor commitments by June 2026.
Gordon Gund, in brief remarks following the announcement, reflected on how far the mission has come from the Foundation's founding 55 years ago. "A day like today was way beyond our thought process at the time. I know if it wasn't for days like today and the results that we heard about, no one would want to fund this. And I think we've got a lot to be proud of."
Key Takeaways
* Gene therapy is delivering on its promise. Multiple programs, LCA1, XLRS, LCA5, and XLRP, are approaching pivotal trials, with patients demonstrating real, measurable visual gains. FDA approval timelines of 2028-2030 are being discussed realistically for the first time across multiple programs simultaneously.
* Platform technologies are taking on genes that are too large for single-gene approaches. RNA splice editing (Amber Bio), exon editing (Ascidian), and AI-accelerated design are moving the field toward scalable platforms capable of addressing broad swaths of the genetic landscape, covering 60-70% of patient populations within a single disease rather than one mutation at a time.
* Endpoints define the trial. The day's most consistent theme: endpoint selection at the study's outset determines whether a therapy that works can prove it works. The field must invest in validating new measures, including low luminance visual acuity, the Freiburg Visual Acuity Test, and innovative microperimetry tools, with the same commitment as it invests in the science itself.
* Gene-agnostic approaches are gaining clinical validation. NACA (Nacuity) achieved FDA Breakthrough Therapy designation for slowing photoreceptor loss by ~50% over 2 years. Optogenetics (Zhongmou) is entering U.S. trials with striking early results in patients with RP. SparingVision and Harvard's Dr. Connie Cepko are building a scientific and clinical rationale for neuroprotection strategies that can complement gene-specific approaches at every stage of disease across indications.
* The RD Fund model is working and growing. $95 million committed across 18 companies, nearly $1.5 billion raised by portfolio companies, 12 clinical trials supported, 350+ patients treated, and a 10x multiplier on donor dollars. Gordon and Laura Gund Foundation's $50 million matching gift challenge now has the potential to grow that leverage to 20-30x.
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Original text here: https://www.fightingblindness.org/news/illuminating-the-future-highlights-from-investing-in-cures-summit-2026-3808
FFRF Rebukes USDA Secretary for Easter 'Rant' to Government Workers
MADISON, Wisconsin, April 9 -- The Freedom From Religion Foundation issued the following news release on April 8, 2026:* * *
FFRF rebukes USDA Secretary for Easter 'rant' to government workers
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling out U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins for sending an explicitly Christian devotional email, apparently to almost 100,000 USDA employees.
FFRF has received multiple complaints from USDA staff regarding the April 5 message, sent as an official message from the "Office of the Secretary OSEC," which proclaimed Easter as "the greatest story ever told, ... Show Full Article MADISON, Wisconsin, April 9 -- The Freedom From Religion Foundation issued the following news release on April 8, 2026: * * * FFRF rebukes USDA Secretary for Easter 'rant' to government workers The Freedom From Religion Foundation is calling out U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins for sending an explicitly Christian devotional email, apparently to almost 100,000 USDA employees. FFRF has received multiple complaints from USDA staff regarding the April 5 message, sent as an official message from the "Office of the Secretary OSEC," which proclaimed Easter as "the greatest story ever told,the foundation of our faith, and the abiding hope of all mankind."
FFRF has sent a formal letter to Secretary Rollins demanding that she refrain from using official communications to promote her personal religious beliefs in the future.
The purely scriptural message was headlined: "Happy Easter - He is Risen indeed!" Rollins' email went far beyond a simple greeting, instead delivering an extended theological message about Jesus' resurrection, sin and salvation, and invoking other explicitly Christian doctrine.
Rollins reiterated Christian faith as fact, writing: "From the foot of the Cross on Good Friday to the stone rolled away from the now empty tomb, sin has been destroyed. Jesus has been raised from the dead. And God has granted each of us victory and new life. And where there is life -- risen life--there is hope."
Then Rollins counseled: "No matter the very real trials and hardships we face, fear and sin and death do not get the last word. Because on Easter morning, 'Hell took a body, and discovered God. It took earth, and encountered Heaven. It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.' Now that is reason to rejoice!"
Continuing in this vein, Rollins sermonized: "And so like the very first disciples to encounter our risen Lord in the Upper Room almost two thousand years ago, this Easter let us too be alive with hope, full of Paschal joy, and confident in the mission each of us has been called for."
Finally, Rollins ended with this devotional wish: "I hope you and your loved ones have a truly blessed and happy Easter. May God continue to bless you, your families, and our exceptional country, One Nation, Under God."
Employees who contacted FFRF described the message as inappropriate and insulting, noting that public servants should not be confronted with overtly religious messaging from the head of a federal agency. Those affronted and excluded by Rollins' rant would include significant numbers, since 29 percent of U.S. adults identify as atheist, agnostic or "nothing in particular," Another 7 percent subscribe to non-Christian faiths. Additionally, many federal employees, regardless of personal beliefs, would be shocked by Rollins' disregard of the separation between religion and government.
Writes FFRF Legal Counsel Chris Line: "No government employee should be subjected to religious preaching as part of workplace communications. By framing Easter as part of 'the foundation of our faith,' your message signals governmental endorsement of Christianity and conveys to employees that adherence to a particular religion is favored."
Reminds FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor,"No federal employee should be subjected to a Christian sermon from a cabinet secretary. Our secular Constitution bars a religious test for public office, and certainly bars a religious test to be a USDA employee.
"To see such an inappropriate message -- using official email channels and the imprimatur of our federal government," adds Gaylor, "really shows that Christian nationalism has run amok in the Trump Administration."
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The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With more than 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
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Original text here: https://ffrf.org/news/releases/ffrf-rebukes-usda-secretary-for-easter-rant-to-government-workers/
[Category: Religion]
FFRF Ends Prayer Led by Ravenswood (W.Va.) City Council Members
MADISON, Wisconsin, April 9 -- The Freedom From Religion Foundation issued the following news release on April 8, 2026:* * *
FFRF ends prayer led by Ravenswood (W.Va.) City Council members
Ravenswood (W.Va.) City Council members will no longer deliver religious invocations at official meetings -- thanks to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's constitutional advocacy.
A concerned community member reported that at the Jan. 20 meeting, Council Member Todd Ritchie led a prayer to begin the public meeting. Mayor Josh Miller asked all attendees to stand, then asked either for a moment of silence ... Show Full Article MADISON, Wisconsin, April 9 -- The Freedom From Religion Foundation issued the following news release on April 8, 2026: * * * FFRF ends prayer led by Ravenswood (W.Va.) City Council members Ravenswood (W.Va.) City Council members will no longer deliver religious invocations at official meetings -- thanks to the Freedom From Religion Foundation's constitutional advocacy. A concerned community member reported that at the Jan. 20 meeting, Council Member Todd Ritchie led a prayer to begin the public meeting. Mayor Josh Miller asked all attendees to stand, then asked either for a moment of silencefor a member of the public to lead a prayer. Ritchie said he would "step out of his role" to lead the prayer, remaining at his spot on the council bench. He gave a Christian prayer, directing it to the "Heavenly Father" and ending with "in Jesus' name we pray. Amen."
Because a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals precedent specifically weighed in against prayer led by local legislators, FFRF wrote a letter to the mayor asking that council-led prayers not become a practice at council meetings. As a policy, FFRF opposes any governmental prayer as exclusionary and inappropriate, and no city or county governmental body is required to open meetings with religious ritual.
"City Council members are free to pray privately or to worship on their own time in their own way," FFRF Patrick O'Reiley Legal Fellow Charlotte R. Gude stated. "They do not need to worship on taxpayers' time."
Citizens, including Ravenswood's nonreligious and minority faith citizens, may be compelled to come before the City Council on important civic matters and to participate in serious decisions affecting their livelihoods, property, children and quality of life, FFRF pointed out. Exclusively Christian prayers marginalize community members belonging to the 34 percent of West Virginians who are non-Christians, including the nearly one in three adult residents of the state who are religiously unaffiliated. It is coercive, embarrassing and intimidating for nonreligious individuals and members of minority religions to be required to make a public showing of their nonbelief (by not rising or praying) or else to display deference toward a religious sentiment in which they do not believe, but which their city council members clearly do.
Thankfully, FFRF's work paid off.
Miller responded to the state/church watchdog's concern noting that the city has taken action to prevent further council-led prayers. "Members of the council have been apprised of the law as a result of your correspondence and will no longer offer an invocation or prayer either prior to or during any council meeting," Miller replied in an official letter.
FFRF is always ready to rise to the occasion when government officials misuse their position for the sake of religion.
"FFRF knows that council-led religious invocations are inherently exclusionary," FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor notes. "No one deserves to feel like an outsider just because one council member wants to deliver a prayer."
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The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a national nonprofit organization with over 41,000 members nationwide, including more than 100 members in West Virginia. FFRF's purposes are to protect the constitutional principle of separation between church and state, and to educate the public on matters relating to nontheism.
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Original text here: https://ffrf.org/news/releases/ffrf-ends-prayer-led-by-ravenswood-w-va-city-council-members/
[Category: Religion]
Asia Foundation President Meets ASEAN Secretary-General
SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 9 -- The Asia Foundation issued the following news on April 7, 2026:* * *
The Asia Foundation President Meets ASEAN Secretary-General
JAKARTA, Indonesia - April 7, 2026 - The Asia Foundation's President and CEO, Laurel Miller, met with ASEAN Secretary-General H.E. Dr. Kao Kim Hourn today at the ASEAN Secretariat for a courtesy meeting, marking the first formal leadership-level engagement between the institutions.
The meeting focused on shared priorities shaping Southeast Asia's future, including the digital economy, cybersecurity, energy resilience, and youth ... Show Full Article SAN FRANCISCO, California, April 9 -- The Asia Foundation issued the following news on April 7, 2026: * * * The Asia Foundation President Meets ASEAN Secretary-General JAKARTA, Indonesia - April 7, 2026 - The Asia Foundation's President and CEO, Laurel Miller, met with ASEAN Secretary-General H.E. Dr. Kao Kim Hourn today at the ASEAN Secretariat for a courtesy meeting, marking the first formal leadership-level engagement between the institutions. The meeting focused on shared priorities shaping Southeast Asia's future, including the digital economy, cybersecurity, energy resilience, and youthleadership. They also reflected on the Secretary-General's early connection with TAF during his career in Cambodia.
The engagement builds on TAF's long-standing partnership with ASEAN, dating back to the 1980s and strengthened through direct institutional collaboration since 2018. Today, the international nonprofit works with approximately 20 ASEAN sectoral bodies and entities across all three community pillars--Political-Security, Economic, and Socio-Cultural-supporting ASEAN priorities through regionally coordinated, country-informed programs.
The collaboration spans maritime security and transnational crime, environmental cooperation, labor migration governance, the care economy, and the Women, Peace, and Security agenda - areas where regional coordination and sustained institutional support are critical to delivering impact at scale. This work reflects TAF's flexible, responsive delivery model, grounded in a deep understanding of ASEAN systems and processes.
During the meeting, TAF also shared its Strategy 2030 , which reinforces its commitment to strengthening regional cooperation and supporting institutions such as ASEAN to advance dialogue, knowledge exchange, and collective action.
As ASEAN continues to play a central role in the region, TAF looks forward to deepening this partnership and contributing to a more secure, inclusive, and resilient Southeast Asia.
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Original text here: https://asiafoundation.org/the-asia-foundation-president-meets-asean-secretary-general/