There are about 48,000 corneal transplants done each year in the U.S., compared to approximately 16,000 kidney transplants and 2,100 heart transplants 12. Out of the 48,000 corneal transplants done, 10 percent of them end up in rejection, largely due to poor medication compliance. The nanoparticle loaded with medication could eliminate the need for a…
Research led by Nicolas Bazan, MD, PhD, Boyd Professor and Director of the LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence, discovered a protein in the retina that is crucial for vision. The paper reports, for the first time, the key molecular mechanisms leading to visual degeneration and blindness. The research reveals events that may…
Over the past 3 decades, global research efforts have unveiled the genetic complexity of the group of rare disorders collectively referred to as retinal dystrophies. Causative mutations for dozens of retinal dystrophies have now been identified, resulting in the discovery of multiple new genes, biological pathways necessary for photoreceptor cell function, and pathogenetic mechanisms involved…
Diabetes is a significant risk factor for developing eye diseases. The most common diabetic eye disease and a leading cause of blindness is diabetic retinopathy. Americans with diabetic retinopathy have diabetic macular edema (DME) in which fluid leaks into the macula, the area of the retina used when looking straight ahead. Over the past few…
Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (AERI), a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of first-in-class therapies for the treatment of patients with glaucoma and other diseases of the eye, announced today potentially breakthrough findings from new preclinical research. The research found that RhopressaTM suppressed the activity of profibrotic proteins – TGF-beta 2 and…
Spark Therapeutics Inc. hit a $1.2 billion valuation on the biotechnology firm’s first day on the market, reflecting growing investor enthusiasm for the once-beleaguered field of gene therapy, a field that has produced the first $1 million drug. The treatments focus on diseases where a single mutation in the genetic code is known to be…
Eleven Biotherapeutics (EBIO), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company discovering and developing protein therapeutics to treat diseases of the eye, today announced the completion of patient enrollment in its first pivotal, Phase 3 clinical study of EBI-005 in patients with dry eye disease. EBI-005, a topical, novel interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptor blocker, is Eleven’s lead drug candidate in development…
RetroSense Therapeutics, LLC, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug designation for the Company’s lead product RST-001 for the treatment of retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Retinitis pigmentosa is a genetic condition which leads to the progressive degeneration of rod and cone photoreceptors (cells found in…
…stem cell researchers have struggled to coax the malleable cells to form the 10 layers of the retina. And, crucially, no one had, before now, produced lab-grown retinal cells that they demonstrated would respond to light.Researchers at Johns Hopkins pulled it off, they reported in a paper published recently in Nature Communications. They cultivated a…
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed two inexpensive adapters that enable a smartphone to capture high-quality images of the front and back of the eye. The adapters make it easy for anyone with minimal training to take a picture of the eye and share it securely with other health practitioners or…