Bringing a Liquid Cornea for treating corneal blindness into the clinic

失明是大多数人最大的恐惧。角膜盲是由于眼睛前部的透明部分由于受伤或疾病而失去清晰度。我们开发了一种“液体角膜”，这基本上是一种修复角膜的新方法。我们建议用胶原样肽制成的生物材料配方填充穿孔的角膜或需要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，这是严重短缺的，在加拿大的一些省份需要等待2- 3年的手术。然而，为了使其在临床上实用，我们必须开发一种类似于螺旋桨的输送系统，使外科医生能够在几分钟内混合配方并应用。此外，对于严重疾病/损伤的患者，我们需要阻断炎症和瘢痕形成，以恢复视力。我们的研究策略是将我们的合作伙伴BirchBiomed已经在临床试验中成功测试的抗瘢痕药物纳入我们的液体角膜，并通过我们的快速重建输送设备（R2D2）输送，并使用我们的合作伙伴WinTerra Global开发的光学设备在小型猪中进行测试。这个项目的成功完成将使我们能够申请监管部门批准进行首次人体临床试验。使用液态角膜代替目前的供体组织移植，将有可能治疗目前1270万因供体组织短缺而仍在等待角膜移植的患者中的很大一部分。R2D2系统将有可能允许在眼科医生的诊所而不是供体移植所需的手术室治疗溃疡或穿孔，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.