SBIR Phase I: Optical Coherence Tomography(OCT)-Sensor Guided Sub-Retinal Injector

这一小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是解决世界范围内最常见的失明原因。视网膜疾病是导致2500多万美国人失明的原因。在世界范围内，儿童失明的流行在很大程度上取决于社会经济发展和预防性护理的可获得性。世界卫生组织估计，到2020年，14岁及以下儿童的视力障碍将达到近1900万人，成年人将达到近2.66亿人。这个SBIR第一阶段项目提出了一种智能手术工具，能够安全和准确地输送干细胞和基因，帮助修复和恢复视网膜变性患者的视力。研究表明，细胞移植技术和注射疗法改善了患者的视力。然而，由于视网膜组织的微妙性质，这一手术要成功进行是具有挑战性的。拟议的工具解决了对更好的可视化和靶向递送治疗剂的未得到满足的需求。精确的治疗预计将在预防和纠正视网膜疾病方面带来好处。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to address the most common causes of blindness worldwide. Retinal diseases account for vision loss in over 25 million Americans. Worldwide, the prevalence of blindness in children is determined largely by socioeconomic development and availability preventative care. By 2020, the World Health Organization estimates that visual impairment among children age 14 and under will reach almost 19 million, and adults will reach almost 266 million. This SBIR Phase I project proposes a SMART surgical tool to enable safe and precise delivery of stem cells and genes to help repair and restore the vision of patients with retinal degeneration. Studies have shown cell transplant technology and injectable therapeutics improve vision in afflicted patients. However, due to the delicate nature of retinal tissue, this procedure is challenging to perform successfully. The proposed tool addresses the unmet need for better visualization and targeted delivery of therapeutic agents. Precise delivery of treatment is expected to deliver benefits in preventing and correcting retinal diseases.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.