Wyss joins Stanford-led team on ARPA-H project to develop groundbreaking eye transplant technology
By Seth Kroll
(BOSTON) — A multidisciplinary team led by Stanford University has been awarded funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health’s (ARPA-H) Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA) program to advance the science and technology necessary for whole eye transplantation. The VISION project, short for Viability, Imaging, Surgical, Immunomodulation, Ocular Preservation, and Neuroregeneration (VISION) Strategies for Whole Eye Transplant, will bring together leading experts from more than 25 institutions across the country, including the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University as a key sub-awardee.
The project aims to overcome longstanding barriers in whole eye transplantation, including challenges in optic nerve regeneration and eye preservation. This offers new hope and transformative possibilities for restoring sight to people suffering vision loss and dramatically improving their quality of life. Worldwide, more than 40 million people are blind, with cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma as the leading causes, and genetic eye disorders contributing to this dismal number.
The collaborative approach will address scientific challenges in eye preservation and optic nerve regeneration, while also developing surgical techniques for transplantation and other integrated strategies. The potential impact of this research could transform treatments for blindness, with future applications extending to other forms of organ preservation and transplantation.
Co-led by Stanford Principal Investigator and ophthalmologist Jeffrey Louis Goldberg, M.D., Ph.D., and José-Alain Sahel, M.D., ophthalmology chair at the University of Pittsburgh, the project will focus on the development of groundbreaking approaches to preserve and regenerate the optic nerve, which is essential for restoring vision. The Wyss team, led by Core Faculty member Dave Mooney, Ph.D., and Director of Immuno-Materials Mike Super, Ph.D., will spearhead critical VISION efforts by contributing its extensive expertise in drug formulation and nanotechnology to solve major challenges in eye transplantation: maintaining donor eye viability, regenerating the optic nerve, and ensuring immunological tolerance of transplants.
“This collaboration will draw on the Wyss Institute’s track record of developing innovative drug delivery systems and its experience with biocompatible materials for tissue engineering applications,” said Mooney. “We’re excited to not only collaborate with Goldberg’s team at Stanford, but also with all the other groups involved in this visionary project.” Mooney leads the Wyss Institute’s Immuno-Materials Platform and is also the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Building on their achievements from the DARPA BIOSTASIS program, the Wyss team will test novel small molecule “biostasis” drugs designed to slow metabolism in ocular tissues, to extend the viability and thus increase storage times and transplantation success of ocular tissues, such as the eye and optic nerve. These biostasis drugs will be encapsulated into nanocarriers to improve their delivery and reduce their toxicity.
Additionally, the Wyss team will also focus on the development of slow-release hydrogels for the controlled delivery of neuro-immunomodulatory reagents to promote the restoration of optic nerve function and prevent immune rejection of transplanted eyes.
“Restoring vision to the blind sounds like true miracle work. The exceptional capabilities we developed at the Wyss Institute over the years to enhance the regeneration of tissues following injury and degeneration, and enabling them where they weren’t possible before anymore, can dramatically increase the potential for success of this ARPA-H supported project and create new hope for people who previously had no hope of regaining their sense of sight,” said Wyss Founding Director Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who led the past DARPA Biostasis project at the Institute. Ingber is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.