The “Gottfried and Liselotte Naumann Foundation” was established in 1997 in Erlangen (Germany) as a non-profit organization to support Ophthalmic Pathology including Clinico-Pathologic Correlations. The Foundation has provided an amount at the disposition of the Board of the International Council of Ophthalmology. An International Committee of experts in Ophthalmic Pathology, selects three candidates from which the ICO Board elects every four years a laureate. The first laureate TP Drija MD, received his award in 2006 at the Opening Ceremony of the WOC in Sao Paulo.

Honoree: Ursula Schlötzer-Schrehardt

Laudatio: Bruce E. Spivey (ICO President)

Ursula Schlötzer-Schrehardt is Associate Professor and Senior Scientist at the Department of Ophthalmology, University Erlangen-Nürnberg (Erlangen/D) She received a PhD (“summa cum laude”) in Biology (thesis “Ultrastructural investigations on reproduction, development and structural organization of Pygospio elegans (Polychaeta, Spionidae))” from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in 1992 and joined the Department of Ophthalmology, where she graduated 1998 in “Experimental Ophthal-mology” and became a member of the Faculty of Medicine. Her thesis on the subject of “Pseudoexfoliation syndrome: histopathology and pathogenesis of a newly described systemic process of the extracellular matrix” was awarded as the best thesis of the Medical Faculty of this year. Since 2008, she also serves as a representative for equal opportunities for the Faculty of Medicine.

By means of full integration into the clinical environment, Ursula Schlötzer-Schrehardt was, as a basic researcher, in a position to contribute greatly to the common and clinically relevant disorder of pseudoexfoliation (PEX) syndrome and to add a growing body of knowledge to this formerly rather obscure entity. Comprehensive clinical-histopathological correlations helped to explain the causative mechanisms of the frequent ocular complications including phacodonesis and lens subluxation, pigment dispersion, poor mydriasis, blood-aqueous barrier dysfunction, and development of secondary glaucomas. The combination of clinical and her histopathological observations led to the original description of a specific PEX-associated keratopathy. These clinical-pathological correlations not only increased our under-standing of this entity and allowed diagnosis of early stages, but also helped to prevent complications and to improve clinical management by close follow-up. One of her most outstanding contributions is the documentation of PEX syndrome as a new systemic process affecting the heart, lungs, liver, kidney, cerebral meninges and blood vessel walls, which appears to be associated with increased cardio-vascular and cerebrovascular morbidity. Lately, her pioneering analytic studies have provided new insights into the underlying molecular pathophysiology and resulted in the commonly accepted pathogenetic concept of PEX syndrome as a stress-induced elastosis. This concept was recently substantiated by the identification of the LOXL1 (lysyl oxidase-like 1) gene, coding for a key enzyme in elastogenesis, as a principal genetic risk factor for both PEX syndrome and PEX glaucoma. Functional alterations of the LOXL1 risk variant, detected by her group, open new approaches for specific treatment strategies in the future.

Apart from being dedicated to pseudoexfoliation, her research interests also include corneal biology/ pathology and corneal stem cells, glaucoma basic science, extracellular matrix as well as general ophthalmic pathology and ultrastructural research. She also established an improved culture technique supporting the preferential expansion and preservation of limbal stem cells for future therapeutic applications in patients with limbal stem cell deficiency.

Her research projects have been continuously supported by the German Research Foundation since 1990. From 1997 until 2009 she was principal investigator and scientific secretary of a Collaborative Research Center “Glaucomas including Pseudoexfoliation Syndrome” (SFB 539). She is Editorial Board Member of the journal “Experimental Eye Research” and Scientific Advisory Board Member of “The Glaucoma Foundation”, New York. She has published over 175 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals, including many describing the histopatho-logic features of ocular diseases, and 20 book chapters. She also received several awards including poster prizes.

All in all, her work received broad recognition worldwide and substantiated her international position as the leading basic researcher in the field of pseudoexfoliation syndrome. Moreover, her personality is gifted to allow exemplarily smooth cooperation so essential for the combination of basic and clinical research. In her spare time, she enjoys literature and the arts as well as scuba diving.