Bringing a Liquid Cornea for treating corneal blindness into the clinic

失明是大多数人最担心的事情。当透明的眼睛前部由于受伤或疾病而失去清晰度时，就会发生角膜失明。我们开发了“液体角膜”，这基本上是一种修复角膜的新方法。我们建议使用由类胶原肽制成的基于生物材料的配方，通过前板层移植来填充穿孔的角膜或需要通过前板层移植替换前部组织的角膜，而不是依靠供体组织移植，而供体组织在加拿大一些省份严重短缺，需要等待2-3年才能进行手术。然而，为了使其在临床上实用，我们必须开发一种类似注射器的输送系统，使外科医生能够在几分钟内混合配方并应用。此外，对于患有严重疾病/损伤的患者，我们需要阻止炎症和疤痕以恢复视力。我们的研究策略是将我们的合作伙伴 BirchBiomed 已在临床试验中成功测试的抗疤痕药物融入我们的液体角膜中，并通过我们的快速重建输送装置 (R2D2) 进行输送，并使用与我们的合作伙伴 WinTerra Global 开发的光学设备在小型猪中进行测试。该项目的成功完成将使我们能够申请监管部门批准首次人体临床试验。使用液体角膜代替当前的供体组织移植将有可能为目前由于供体组织短缺而仍在等待角膜移植的 1270 万名患者中的很大一部分提供治疗。 R2D2 系统将有可能允许在眼科诊所而不是供体移植所需的手术室治疗溃疡或穿孔，从而缩短患者的愈合时间并节省医疗费用。

Going blind is a top fear of most people. Corneal blindness occurs when the transparent frontof 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 withdonor tissues, which are in severe short supply with Canadian in some provinces waiting 2-3years for surgery, we propose to fill perforated corneas or corneas needing replacement ofthe front tissues by anterior lamellar grafting, with a biomaterials-based formulation madefrom collagen-like peptides. However, to make it practical for clinical use, we have to developa syringe-like delivery system that would allow the surgeon to mix up the formulation andapply within minutes. Also, for patients with severe disease/damage, we need to block theinflammation and scarring in order to restore vision. Our research strategy is to incorporate ananti-scarring drug that is already successfully tested in clinical trials by our partner BirchBiomed into our Liquid Cornea and deliver this through our Rapid Reconstitution DeliveryDevice (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 regulatoryapproval for a first-in-human clinical trial. The use of the Liquid Cornea instead of currentdonor tissue transplants will potentially allow for treatment of a significant proportion of thecurrent 12.7 million patients still awaiting cornea transplantation due to the donor tissueshortfall. The R2D2 system will potentially allow for treatment of ulcers or perforations inophthalmologists' clinics instead of an operating room that is needed for donortransplantation, resulting in faster healing time for patients and healthcare savings.