Blindness exerts major physical, emotional and economic constraints and hardship upon the sufferer. Transplant surgery can restore vision to many people who are visually impaired as a result of disease affecting the front of the eye. The transplant itself is taken from the eye of a person who has died, after consent from the donor's family. Our goal is to improve the outcome for patients who require transplants of tissue to the front of the eye, in order to restore their vision or to relieve pai ....Blindness exerts major physical, emotional and economic constraints and hardship upon the sufferer. Transplant surgery can restore vision to many people who are visually impaired as a result of disease affecting the front of the eye. The transplant itself is taken from the eye of a person who has died, after consent from the donor's family. Our goal is to improve the outcome for patients who require transplants of tissue to the front of the eye, in order to restore their vision or to relieve pain. Our work is predicated on the finding that unwanted immune responses are the major cause of graft failure in such patients. The recipient recognizes the grafted tissue as being foreign, and rejects it. Treatment with conventional systemic drugs appears to hold little promise for further improvements in outcome, but gene therapy applied to the donor tissue may provide a safe and effective way of reducing transplant failure. Gene therapy can be undertaken on the donor tissue in the laboratory, prior to transplantation surgery. In this project, we will assess the suitability of a new method of modifying the transplant. All of the work will be performed on the laboratory bench, or in experimental animals.Read moreRead less
A Novel Mesenchymal Stromal Cell And Biomaterial For Corneal Reconstruction
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$508,611.00
Summary
Our research group has identified a new cell type (L-MSC) with the potential to treat a variety of eye diseases. We have also developed a novel material from a protein found in silk, that has potential as a vehicle for delivering healthy cells into diseased eyes. The present project will build upon these promising results by evaluating the properties of L-MSC necessary for clinical use and by testing the feasibility of our new cell delivery system.
The goal of our work is to improve outcomes for patients who are blind or seriously visually impaired as a result of corneal disease. Such patients can regain vision through a corneal transplant, but many such transplants fail. A corneal graft may fail because of an unwanted immune response, because blood vessels grow into the graft, or because some corneal cells die. We plan to transfer genes to the donor cornea in the laboratory, prior to corneal transplantation, to avoid such failure.
Eye Banks, Exports, And Australian Opinion: Exploring National Utility Of Human Corneal Tissue Donation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$111,973.00
Summary
Human corneal tissue donations from the deceased can outstrip the demand of eye tissue from ophthalmologists to perform a corneal transplantation, a surgical procedure to treat blindness. This research will determine the quantity of surplus eye tissue, and community understanding of donation and support for exportation. This will help the sector with decision-making on management of oversupply and potential exporte to other countries in need.
Regional Immunosuppression For Corneal Transplantation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$268,264.00
Summary
Blindness exerts major physical, emotional and economic constraints and hardship upon the sufferer. Corneal transplantation is a well-accepted surgical treatment for visual impairment caused by opacification of the cornea, the transparent window at the front of the eye. Corneas for transplantation are retrieved from people who have recently died, after permission has been sought from the donor's family. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of corneal transplants fail because they are recogniz ....Blindness exerts major physical, emotional and economic constraints and hardship upon the sufferer. Corneal transplantation is a well-accepted surgical treatment for visual impairment caused by opacification of the cornea, the transparent window at the front of the eye. Corneas for transplantation are retrieved from people who have recently died, after permission has been sought from the donor's family. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of corneal transplants fail because they are recognized as foreign, and undergo rejection by the recipient. Once a corneal graft has failed, it is no longer transparent to light. A number of novel interventions are being developed to reduce the incidence of corneal graft rejection, but at present it is uncertain exactly how these should be delivered to the patient. The research described in this application is designed to discover how therapeutic agents and interventions can best be targeted, to prevent corneal graft rejection. Overcoming an unwanted immune response would improve the outcome of corneal transplantation by as much as thirty percent.Read moreRead less
Application Of Adult Stem Cells To Bioengineered Corneal Epithelium And Endothelium Autografts
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$92,314.00
Summary
Damage to the cornea causes vision loss. Transplants can restore sight but carry risk of rejection and therefore require anti-rejection therapy, which has side effects. Bioengineered corneal components could replace transplants. Our goals are: 1) Growth of corneal endothelium and epithelium from adult stem cells to reduce the amount of tissue so the patient's own cells could be used. 2) Develop scaffolds that are suitable for implantation or other methods to deliver cells.
Gene Transfer For Corneal Transplantation And Limbal Stem Cell Transplantation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$743,463.00
Summary
The cornea is the clear window at the front of the eye. Corneal disease is the second most common reason for blindness in the world. It is sometimes made worse by additional disease affecting the ocular surface. Replacement of a damaged cornea, or of the elements that maintain a normal ocular surface, is possible by transplantation of tissue (either the cornea or the limbus) from a donor eye. The alternative, an artificial cornea, has never yet been reported to function nearly as well as does a ....The cornea is the clear window at the front of the eye. Corneal disease is the second most common reason for blindness in the world. It is sometimes made worse by additional disease affecting the ocular surface. Replacement of a damaged cornea, or of the elements that maintain a normal ocular surface, is possible by transplantation of tissue (either the cornea or the limbus) from a donor eye. The alternative, an artificial cornea, has never yet been reported to function nearly as well as does a successful corneal graft, because the interface between the patient and the prosthesis breaks down and serious problems such as infection are common. Transplantation of the cornea is very successful in some patients but in a sizable subgroup, the graft will fail because of an unwanted immune response. Rejection is the usual cause of a graft failure. Grafts to repair a damaged ocular surface also fail from rejection. Overcoming an unwanted immune response would improve the outcome of corneal transplantation by as much as thirty percent. Overcoming the twin problems of corneal graft rejection and ocular surface disease would make transplantation a feasible option for millions of blind individuals. Novel approaches to abrogation of the immune response to ocular tissue grafts are required, because the many developments in immunosuppression that have improved the survival of other types of transplants have not improved the outcome for grafts in the eye. The immunobiology of the eye is sufficiently different from that of solid organs to demand a different approach. We plan to investigate the use of localised gene transfer to donor eye tissue prior to transplantation, to improve corneal graft and limbal graft outcome.Read moreRead less
Metrics Of Optical Quality Predictive Of Visual Performance In Eye Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$121,655.00
Summary
Highly precise measurement of the optical quality of the human eye (how well an image is formed by light passing through the eye) is now possible. While eye's optics can be measured, it is less clear how to report optical quality in a way that is related to how well the eye sees; optics and vision are complex. This project will attempt to find ways to describe the optical quality of the human eye that predicts how well the eye sees - both for the normal eye and eyes with disease.
Cultivated Corneal Endothelial Cell Implants For Restoring Vision
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$886,032.00
Summary
Thousands of Australians each year receive a corneal tissue transplant from the eyes of a deceased organ donor. In the majority of cases these transplants are performed to restore structure and function to the most posterior layer of the cornea – the corneal endothelium. The reliance upon donor tissue, however, presents significant logistical and safety issues. Our goal is therefore to develop improved strategies for treating diseases of the corneal endothelium using cultivated tissue implants.
Therapeutics For Repair And Regeneration Of The Cornea
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$166,087.00
Summary
Corneal disease is the commonest cause of irreversible blindness and of the 50 million people world-wide who are bilaterally blind, 10 million are blind from corneal involvement. This proposal will address corneal disease by 1. innovative translational research for corneal repair and regeneration; 2. developing evidence-based management guidelines for corneal disease, and 3. by optimising health service delivery.