Building a biological cornea

About

  Summary: Corneal disease is a major cause of blindness, affecting more  than 10 million people worldwide with millions more suffering  from visual impairment. Corneal diseases affect all ages and  have a significant impact on vision and quality of life, with  obvious economic implications. Current treatment involves  corneal transplantation, a surgical procedure where a damaged  cornea is replaced by donor corneal tissue. Cadaveric donor  tissue is a limited resource in most countries (unavailable in  some), with demand increasingly exceeding supply. The current  waiting time for corneal transplantation in New Zealand is  over one year. Although artificial corneas are available for  clinical use, they suffer a number of limitations. Non-biological  corneal substitutes (keratoprostheses) do not support cells and  therefore increases the risk of post implantation complications  such as infection and leakage. Such complications limit long- term visual prognosis. A new biological scaffold has recently been developed that  has the potential to overcome these problems and become  a clinically viable corneal tissue substitute for human  transplantation. This has the potential to significantly impact  international clinical practice and patient outcomes by  providing a cost-effective and long term solution for treating  key corneal diseases. A suitable tissue substitute would have a  dramatic effect on reducing waiting times for surgical treatment  and may enable treatment of corneal diseases not currently  suitable for allograft transplantation, thus decreasing the  burden of disease morbidity in the community. Competitive advantage • Current scaffold production is simple and rapid. Has desired lamellar collagen structure, high degree of transparency and  tensile strength. • Flexible whilst maintaining desired shape in vivo. • Easily manipulated using surgical forceps without tearing. • Biocompatible and supports cell growth. Current Development stage The technology is at a stage whereby scaffold samples can  be easily produced in the lab and used to conduct further  experimentation for validation. In vivo animal studies are one  avenue for additional technology validation. To date, the scaffold has been shown to have a lamellar  structure, shows a high degree of transparency, has significant  higher tensile strength (rubber-like consistency) than currently  available collagen based scaffolds, and supports cell growth. IP position The collagen compositions and methods of preparing and  employing these compositions are novel and have been  patented. The compositions and methods are useful for  repairing and/or augmenting eye tissue, along with other  tissues of the body, and thereby treating and/or preventing  various conditions of eye and other bodily conditions.  Due to the characteristics of this novel scaffold, it has the  potential to be used for various applications other than corneal  tissue substitutes. In particular, it is biocompatible (supports  cell growth), and has a high tensile strength (enabling it to be  sutured). This scaffold therefore has potential applications in  engineering tissues such as skin, bone, cartilage or tendon.