Collaborative Research Team to Focus on Developing Whole Eye Transplants to Restore Vision
Vision-restoring whole eye transplants may soon become a reality, thanks to a collaborative effort led by Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, chair of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford.
Stanford University has received an award to bring together over 40 scientists, doctors, and industry experts from across the country. Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, Blumenkranz Smead professor and chair of ophthalmology, will lead the initiative, with José-Alain Sahel, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, co-directing.
“This group of people have been working for decades now on figuring out how to promote optic nerve regeneration and retinal neuron survival in glaucoma and other blinding diseases,” Goldberg said. “That positions this group of collaborators to be the best situated to take on optic nerve regeneration and neuronal cell survival in the context of eye transplant.”
“Scientific breakthroughs are impossible without strong collaborations,” Sahel said. “By combining the deep knowledge about ophthalmology, tissue preservation and regeneration, immunology, and surgery of world-class scientists at Byers Eye Institute, University of Pittsburgh, and consortium members from top institutions, we are well-positioned to set the foundational steps toward restoring vision using whole eye transplant.”
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA) program has awarded up to $56 million to the Viability, Imaging, Surgical, Immunomodulation, Ocular Preservation, and Neuroregeneration (VISION) Strategies for Whole Eye Transplant project.
Transplants aren’t new in ophthalmology. Over 70,000 people in the United States donate their eyes annually, enabling cornea transplants that improve vision.
However, this new research collaboration aims to address the most common causes of irreversible vision loss, such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy.
The Whole Eye Transplant project team comprises experts in medical devices, artificial intelligence, surgical techniques, regenerative medicine, and rejection mitigation. They’ll work collaboratively, sharing information in real-time and pursuing the most promising leads.
Meticulous donor eye selection, advanced ocular imaging, and specialized logistics in organ procurement and preservation will be crucial for success, and collaborators on this team are already the established leaders in these key areas of transplant science. Tailored post-care rehabilitation for eye recipients will also be essential.
“Eye transplants stand to address the most severely blind, and because the risk of that severity of blindness goes up with decreasing access to medical care, the whole program stands to equalize access to care and access to vision,” said Wendy Liu, MD, PhD, professor of ophthalmology, one of eight Stanford faculty members working on the project, and a 2023 Shaffer Research Grant recipient.
While whole eye transplants are the primary focus of the three-phase, six-year project, it could lead to breakthroughs in vision restorative technologies for glaucoma and other eye diseases, Dr. Goldberg said.
“As we develop a series of new technologies that could be vision restorative in THEA and also in the many patients with glaucoma and other eye diseases, we’ll leverage all the proper channels to ensure new drugs, gene therapies, and devices can be accessible to all,” he said.
Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD also serves as chair of the Scientific Advisory Board for Glaucoma Research Foundation’s Catalyst for a Cure Vision Restoration Initiative. Several researchers from the Catalyst for a Cure are participating in the Whole Eye Transplant project.
The Whole Eye Transplant research is funded, in part, by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). The views and conclusions are those of the authors and not the official policies of the United States Government.
Photos: Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, in the lab at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford, and the eight Stanford researchers participating in the Whole Eye Transplant project. Photos by Chris Shum Photography.
Article posted on December 11, 2024. Source: Stanford University