The 2025 annual meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) in Salt Lake City, Utah opened with an energizing start as the Day 1 minisymposium, Translational Scientist: Building Programs for a Brighter Future, brought together a room full of curious minds ready to explore the power of team science.
Just like mice navigating a maze, researchers and clinicians shared how they had worked side by side, navigating complex paths to uncover solutions that are already shaping the future of ocular oncology and pathology.
Tandem discovery in vitreoretinal lymphoma
Dr. Anita Chan and Mona Wang from the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC) delivered a compelling tandem talk that brought translational science vividly to life. As a clinician-researcher duo deeply immersed in the world of vitreoretinal lymphoma (VRL), they walked the audience through the nuanced journey of turning clinical puzzles into actionable lab solutions.
Ms. Wang opened with the real-world challenges of diagnosing VRL, a rare cancer that often hides behind the mask of chronic uveitis. She highlighted how fragile lymphoma cells often break down during sample processing, hence complicating cytologic diagnosis. But new approaches—like MYD88 mutation analysis—are changing the game. “MYD88 mutational testing is useful for the clinical diagnosis of vitreoretinal lymphoma, especially when you don’t have good cytology,” she emphasized.
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Then Mona stepped in to describe how they brought that idea to the bench, developing a single-cell analysis pipeline that increases diagnostic sensitivity. “We tried to make it as simple as possible for clinical labs,” she said. “One of our research aims is to have these standardized test kits for widespread use… so that we can have multi-center collaborations and better understand tumor heterogeneity in VRL.”
Together, Dr. Chan and Ms. Wang showed how close collaboration between clinic and lab can push the boundaries of what’s possible in rare disease diagnostics. Their talk felt less like a formal lecture and more like a dynamic conversation—one rooted in shared curiosity, practical problem-solving and a clear vision for better patient outcomes.
A mission to redefine uveal melanoma research
In a talk that blended scientific rigor with heartfelt urgency, Dr. Lauren Dalvin (United States) of the Mayo Clinic shared her team’s ambitious journey to revolutionize uveal melanoma research—one patient-derived organoid at a time. “This is the most common thing I treat in my practice,” she began, “and my least favorite conversation is telling patients that no matter what I do for your eye, I can’t make your metastatic risk go to zero.” With limited treatment options and outdated lab models, Dr. Dalvin knew change was overdue.
So she built it—literally. With help from an unexpected cross-disciplinary network (“A pancreatic cancer researcher taught me how to make organoids!”), she and her team developed 3D tumor models that better reflect how this disease behaves in real patients. These organoids retain critical mutations like BAP1 loss and even mimic metastatic behavior when implanted in mice. “They sort of take on their own personality,” she said with a smile. Even more exciting? These models respond differently to drugs based on their genetic profile—offering hope for more precise therapies in the future.
Dr. Dalvin’s story is one of persistence, collaboration and a fierce commitment to moving from “we can’t” to “what if?”—with science leading the way.
Two decades of translational genetics in uveal melanoma
Drs. Colleen Cebulla (United States) and Mohamed Abdel-Rahman (United States) offered a powerful look at how two decades of integrated clinical and molecular research have transformed our understanding of BAP1 tumor predisposition syndrome (TPDS) and uveal melanoma.
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“What began as a simple clinical observation—that some uveal melanoma patients had strong family histories of cancer—evolved into a hypothesis-driven investigation of hereditary risk,” said Dr. Abdel-Rahman. Their work, grounded in both cytogenetics and high-resolution molecular profiling, was among the first to show that partial chromosome 3 loss behaves like monosomy 3—an insight now foundational in ocular oncology.
Together, they’ve built a biobank of patient samples that has not only validated key genetic markers but also informed national screening guidelines. “We’ve now identified germline mutations not just in BAP1, but also in other cancer-associated genes like CHEK2,” Dr. Abdel-Rahman noted, referencing prospective family history data that predicted a 10-15% germline mutation rate in selected uveal melanoma cases.
Their multi-specialty clinic at Ohio State follows rigorous protocols—fundus photography, ocular ultrasound and whole-body MRIs—to detect early manifestations of BAP1 TPDS across organ systems. “This is translational research in action,” Dr. Cebulla emphasized, pointing to their growing biorepository and collaboration with international consortia. “We’re not just studying mutations—we’re building systems to catch disease before it starts.”
The power of clinicopathologic collaboration
Prof. Dr. Martina Herwig-Carl (Germany) and Dr. Swathi Kaliki (India) took the stage to emphasize how pathology isn’t just a postscript to patient care—it’s central to it. “Ophthalmic clinical pathology correlation is important not just for diagnosis, but for teaching, research and improving surgical outcomes,” said Prof. Herwig-Carl, whose presentation focused on non-oncologic insights.
From differentiating nevi from melanoma by spotting tiny cystic spaces, to revealing keratocyte loss post-crosslinking that’s invisible clinically, she made one thing clear: histology tells the part of the story the eye can’t see. Her analysis of retinal implants in AMD patients even showed how histopathology could validate long-term implant biocompatibility—something OCT alone could never confirm.
Dr. Kaliki picked up the thread with a series of jaw-dropping oncologic cases that underscored just how essential pathologists are in directing treatment. “This presentation also represents the teamwork that happens between the ocular oncologist and the pathology team,” she said. One case involved a child with aggressive eyelid swelling that turned out to be sebaceous gland hyperplasia associated with Muir-Torre syndrome—a rare but important find.
Another, a relentless conjunctival lesion, was ultimately diagnosed as IgG4-related orbital disease only after pathologic deep dives. Perhaps the most startling was an intraocular adenocarcinoma that stumped the team until pathology narrowed it down to a likely ciliary body origin. And her final case? A rare BCOR-associated sarcoma of the orbit—a reminder that even in eye cancer, the frontier is always expanding.
Together, Prof. Herwig-Carl and Dr. Kaliki reminded the audience that real precision medicine lies in the details—and those details are often microscopic.
READ MORE: Get daily ARVO 2025 updates from Utah on PIE and CAKE websites.
Editor’s Note: Reporting for this story took place during the annual meeting of The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO 2025) being held from 4-8 May in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
