EAC 2026 - Day1: #04. Exploring developmental & postnatal PAX6 aniridia with spatial transcriptomics

This is session 1 of the 8th European Aniridia Conference 2026, held in Sofia, Bulgaria, from April 17th to April 19th Session 1: From bed to bench and back – stem cell research as a new hope for aniridia patients; Latest update on stem cells, PAX6 and aniridia Speaker: Postdoctoral Researcher Meri Vattulainen, University of Linköping, Linköping, Sweden Biopic: Throughout her research career, Meri Vattulainen has focused on ocular biology and stem cells. She completed her doctoral studies at Tampere University in 2022, where she developed clinically translatable cell therapies for the treatment of limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD). In 2024, she joined Prof. Neil Lagali’s group at Linköping University, where she applies high-resolution spatial transcriptomics to study PAX6-related aniridia and aniridia-associated stem cell deficiency. Title of presentation: Exploring developmental and postnatal PAX6 aniridia with spatial transcriptomics Abstract of presentation: We have conducted Visium HD spatial transcriptomic analysis on ocular tissues from embryonic (E14.5 and E18.5) and postnatal (P7 and P14) PAX6-aniridic mice. Here, we explore this novel dataset to gain a deeper understanding of the early molecular mechanisms by which PAX6 haploinsufficiency affects the development of limbal stem cells and triggers the onset of aniridia-associated keratopathy (AAK). http://www.aniridiaconference.org | http://www.aniridia.eu