Bringing a Liquid Cornea for treating corneal blindness into the clinic

失明是大多数人最害怕的事情。当眼睛的透明前额因受伤或疾病而失去透明度时，就会发生角膜失明。我们研制出了一种“液体角膜”，这基本上是一种修复角膜的新方法。与依靠供体组织移植不同，加拿大的供体组织在一些省份严重短缺，等待手术2-3年，我们建议用胶原样肽制成的生物材料配方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。然而，为了使其实际应用于临床，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并在几分钟内使用。此外，对于有严重疾病/损伤的患者，我们需要阻止炎症和疤痕的形成，以恢复视力。我们的研究战略是将一种已经由我们的合作伙伴BirchBied在临床试验中成功测试的抗瘢痕药物加入到我们的液体角膜中，并通过我们的快速重建交付设备(R2D2)提供这种药物，并使用与我们的合作伙伴WinTerra Global开发的光学设备在小型猪身上进行测试。该项目的成功完成将使我们能够申请监管部门批准进行首例人类临床试验。由于供体组织减少，目前仍在等待角膜移植的1270万名患者中，有很大一部分人可以通过使用液体角膜来代替目前的供体组织移植。R2D2系统将潜在地允许在眼科医生的诊所治疗溃疡或穿孔，而不是捐献或移植所需的手术室，从而加快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.