Akiyoshi Uemura (MD, PhD) is Professor at the Department of Retinal Vascular Biology at Nagoya City University, Japan. His three recent papers published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and a seminal report in Cancer Cell highlight the function of important vascular factors and pericytes for retinal and tumor angiogenesis. On 18 September, he will give a talk on “Sustained inflammation and fibrosis in pericyte-defiicient retina”.