Restoration of vision with new generation Artficial Theranostic Cornea

角膜是眼睛最外层透明的部分，它作为主要的折射元件将光线传递到视网膜，使我们看到。对角膜的任何损害或疾病，导致其永久丧失透明度，导致角膜失明。世界卫生组织在2017年的报告中估计，全球有2.53亿人患有视力障碍，其中2300万人患有单眼疾病。很明显，仅仅增加捐赠不足以弥补捐献角膜的短缺。更重要的是，即使可以获得供体角膜，病情严重的患者也无法从供体角膜中获益，因为他们有很高的排斥风险，因此需要另一种方法。我将开发纳米技术辅助的促再生人工角膜（arc），可以对抗与角膜失明相关的临床挑战，促进功能再生和恢复视力。arc将与内置的治疗（诊断和治疗）监测系统一起开发，以识别和治疗导致移植排斥和失败的因素。新型人工角膜具有抗感染、抗炎和细胞增殖活性。在这个临床前项目中收集的信息将指导未来的临床试验，并将研究成果转化为角膜失明患者。我提出的方法从未被解决过，对于恢复视力的领域来说是全新的，可能会彻底改变目前的角膜移植制度，可能会对英国及其他地区的生活质量产生重大影响。

The cornea is the outermost transparent part of the eye, which acts as the main refractive element to transmit light to the retina, giving us sight. Any damage or disease to the cornea that causes permanent loss of its transparency results in corneal blindness. The World Health Organization in their 2017 report estimated that 253 million people live with visual impairment, with 23 million suffering with one eye condition. It is clear that increasing donations alone will no way be sufficient to make up for the donor cornea shortage. More importantly, even if donor corneas were available, patients with severe pathologies would not benefit from donor as they are at high risk of rejecting the donor cornea, thereby necessitating an alternative approach. I shall develop nanotechnology assisted pro-regenerative artificial cornea (ARCs) that can combat the clinical challenges associated with corneal blindness to promote functional regeneration and restore vision. ARCs will be developed together with an in-built theranostic (diagnostic cum therapeutic) monitoring system to identify and treat factors leading to rejection and failure of the transplant. The new artificial cornea will be anti-infective, anti-inflammatory and will have cell-proliferative activity. Information will be gathered in this pre-clinical project would guide towards future clinical trials and in translation of research to patients with corneal blindness. My proposed approach is never been addressed and is completely new to the field to restore vision might revolutionise the present cornea transplantation regime could have significant impact and quality of life in UK and beyond.