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Advances in eye health

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Dissecting slaughterhouse pig eyes that we use for testing biomaterials, e.g. suturing practice.

May Griffith, PhD, Marie-Claude Robert, MD, Samir Jabbour, MD, and Isabelle Brunette, MD Department of Ophthalmology, Université de Montréal

The first-in-human attempt to regenerate the human cornea was a team effort led by May Griffith, who is currently a Université de Montréal (UdeM) professor of ophthalmology. Together with Isabelle Brunette and the Swedish clinical trial team led by Per Fagerholm, they reported the successful regeneration of the human cornea in a clinical trial of 10 Swedish patients.

A follow-up study was completed on six patients at high risk of rejecting conventional human donor cornea transplantation in collaboration with corneal surgeons at the LV Prasad Eye Institute in India and the Filatov Institute of Eye Diseases and Tissue Therapy in Ukraine. The cell-free implants were able to stimulate the patient’s own stem cells to regrow or regenerate new corneal tissue and nerves.

Patients with ulceration and scarring after severe infection showed the best outcomes after surgery with cell-free implants that stimulated the patients’ corneas to regrow new tissue in place of the removed
pathologic tissue.

Bursting pressure testing to ensure biomaterials will seal defects.

Vaccines have always been highly successful at reaching the masses. Together with Moorfields
Eye Hospital’s cornea specialist, Bruce Allan, and the UdeM team have been focusing on delivering an
injectable solution to seal perforations and act as an alternative to partial thickness transplantation. Proof of concept in animal studies shows promising results.

The development of the LiQD Cornea was a response to a challenge from Tej Kohli to Griffith and Allan on how they can expect to reach millions as solid implants, like donor corneas, will require expensive OR teams and time. While stem cells will be needed where these are deficient, the Montreal team and collaborators worldwide continue to work on therapies that include both biomaterials and stem cells.

The Tej Kohli & Ruit Foundation is a restricted fund operating under the auspices of Prism The Gift Fund, registered UK charity number 1099682.