The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy are organizing a series of listening sessions to get feedback from patient advocacy groups, industry, scientific professional organizations and other stakeholders to contribute to the planning for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).  The proposed mission of ARPA-H could be to invest in break-through technologies and broadly applicable platforms, capabilities, resources, and solutions with the potential to transform important areas of medicine and health for the benefit of all patients and which cannot be readily accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity.

This online scientific symposium’s goal is to facilitate discussion of technical issues associated with studying the microbiome in a low biomass niche, specifically the ocular surface.

The symposium will comprise 4 sessions with 3-4 presentations per session. Sessions will address specimen collection and processing, methods for characterizing the ocular surface microbiome, and best practices for generating reproducible data. Discussions will follow each session.

Registration is free and attendees are welcome to participate in the panel discussions.

The National Advisory Eye Council (NAEC) advises NEI on funding decisions, initiatives, and strategic planning. Council meetings are currently being held virtually. Links will be published on the NAEC meeting agenda page , when available.

Join the conversation in November — and share information about diabetic eye disease with your community all year long.