Bringing a Liquid Cornea for treating corneal blindness into the clinic

失明是大多数人最害怕的事情。当透明前部出现角膜失明时 眼睛由于受伤或疾病而失去清晰度。我们已经开发出一种“液体角膜”， 这基本上是一种修复角膜的新方法。而不是依赖于通过 捐献组织严重短缺，加拿大一些省份等待2-3个 多年的手术，我们建议填充穿孔的角膜或需要替换的角膜 前部组织通过前板层移植，以生物材料为基础的配方 从胶原蛋白样多肽中提取。然而，为了使其实际用于临床，我们必须开发 一种类似注射器的输送系统，允许外科医生混合配方和 在几分钟内申请。此外，对于有严重疾病/损害的患者，我们需要阻止 发炎和结疤，以恢复视力。我们的研究战略是将一个 我们的合作伙伴Birch已经在临床试验中成功测试了抗瘢痕药物 将BioMed注入我们的液态角膜，并通过我们的快速重建递送 设备(R2D2)，并使用与我们的合作伙伴开发的光学设备在小型猪身上进行测试， 温特拉全球公司。该项目的成功完成将使我们能够申请监管 批准了一项首个人类临床试验。用液态角膜代替普通角膜 供体组织移植将有可能治疗相当大比例的 目前仍有1270万患者因供体组织而等待角膜移植 差额。R2D2系统将潜在地允许治疗溃疡或穿孔 眼科医生的诊所，而不是捐赠者需要的手术室 移植，从而缩短了患者的愈合时间，并节省了医疗费用。

Going blind is a top fear of most people. Corneal blindness occurs when the transparent front of the eye loses it clarity due to injury or disease. We have developed a "Liquid Cornea", which is basically a new way to repair corneas. Instead of relying on transplantation with donor tissues, which are in severe short supply with Canadian in some provinces waiting 2-3 years for surgery, we propose to fill perforated corneas or corneas needing replacement of the front tissues by anterior lamellar grafting, with a biomaterials-based formulation made from collagen-like peptides. However, to make it practical for clinical use, we have to develop a syringe-like delivery system that would allow the surgeon to mix up the formulation and apply within minutes. Also, for patients with severe disease/damage, we need to block the inflammation and scarring in order to restore vision. Our research strategy is to incorporate an anti-scarring drug that is already successfully tested in clinical trials by our partner Birch Biomed into our Liquid Cornea and deliver this through our Rapid Reconstitution Delivery Device (R2D2) and test it in mini-pigs using optical equipment developed with our partner, WinTerra Global. Successful completion of this project will allow us to apply for regulatory approval for a first-in-human clinical trial. The use of the Liquid Cornea instead of current donor tissue transplants will potentially allow for treatment of a significant proportion of the current 12.7 million patients still awaiting cornea transplantation due to the donor tissue shortfall. The R2D2 system will potentially allow for treatment of ulcers or perforations in ophthalmologists' clinics instead of an operating room that is needed for donor transplantation, resulting in faster healing time for patients and healthcare savings.