Avista Therapeutics

Happy Labor Day! Remember to protect your eyes with sunglasses and/or a hat, and don't forget the SPF.

There's a reason we say "in the blink of an eye" to describe something quick. There are six muscles in each eye that move faster than any other muscles in the body. Relative to their function, the muscles in our eyes are the fastest and strongest in the whole body.

The traditional approach to evaluating AAVs is slow and imprecise, often taking years and necessitating several studies to identify promising candidates for delivering gene therapy. In contrast, scAAVengr offers a more rapid and precise method for evaluating AAVs as it directly measures the efficacy of AAV vectors in both cell entry and gene cargo expression. Avista is also utilizing intravitreal injections to broaden gene therapy accessibility beyond sub-retinal delivery, which requires invasive surgery of the retina. The Company’s novel AAVs have the potential to be administered in-office at lower doses, delivering the same or improved results as the current surgical procedure. Learn more about our process: avistatx.com

MEET OUR TEAM: Jeanne Cunicelli, MBA, from our Board of Directors Jeanne Cunicelli, a veteran venture capitalist in the life sciences industry, became president of UPMC Enterprises in January 2021. Cunicelli was a managing director at Bay City Capital in San Francisco before joining UPMC in 2017 to lead UPMC Enterprises’ Translational Sciences focus area. As president of UPMC Enterprises, Cunicelli is leading UPMC’s efforts to commercialize its managerial and health care expertise. With a focus on improving the quality, efficiency and patient experience at UPMC, the division and its partners will then take those solutions to the broader health care market through its two focus areas, Translational Sciences and Digital Solutions. Under Cunicelli’s leadership, the Translational Sciences team has grown to more than 20 scientific and investment professionals working to accelerate the transfer of scientific discoveries into life-changing medicines, diagnostics and devices. Based on ground-breaking research from the University of Pittsburgh and other global innovators, the team will deploy $1 billion in life sciences investments by 2024. Through its Digital Solutions group, UPMC Enterprises has started and invested in a portfolio of companies that leverages UPMC’s scale and health care insights to provide clinicians, payers and consumers with engaging technology that improves the quality and cost effectiveness of health care. Cunicelli is a member of the Board of Trustees of Carnegie Mellon University. She received an M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco and a bachelor’s degree in cognitive psychology from Carnegie Mellon University. Learn more about our team: avistatx.com

Tomorrow! Join us for the last lecture in the Gene Therapy Boot Camp Lecture Series. It's free and open to the public. Can't make it to campus? Join us for a webinar virtually via the QR code.

The eye is an incredibly complex organ. At Avista, we have some of the best scientists working today. Despite progress in gene therapy, ensuring that viral vectors effectively deliver therapeutic genes to the targeted cells in the retina remains a key obstacle. To address this challenge, the in-vivo scAAVengr computational platform utilizes single-cell RNA sequencing to identify various AAV vectors, rapidly and quantitatively, for their suitability in delivering gene therapy to specific parts of the retina. See more about our work: avistatx.com

Low vision can make it hard to do everyday activities. It can’t be fixed with standard methods like glasses, contact lenses, medicine, or surgery. You may have low vision if you can’t see well enough to do things like read, drive, recognize peoples faces, tell colors apart, and see your television or computer screen clearly. The types of low vision you have depends on the disease or condition that caused your low vision. The most common types of low vision are: - Central vision loss (not being able to see things in the center of your vision) - Peripheral vision loss (not being able to see things out of the corners of your eyes) - Night blindness (not being able to see in low light) - Blurry or hazy vision Learn about our work at avistatx.com

Gene Therapy Boot Camp Lecture Series continues through August with these wonderful speakers. All events are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served!

Avista's CSO and Co-Founder, Leah Byrne, PhD, is hosting Gene Therapy Boot Camp Lecture Series at Pitt this summer. All events are free and open to the public. Come join us tomorrow!

How do we see colors? Light travels to the retina at the back of the eye. Most people have three kinds of cones that detect three colors: red, blue and green. All other colors are combination of those!