![]() It is a bumpy road with all sorties of difficulties. We endeavour to provide the community with real-time access to true unfiltered news firsthand from primary sources. This tendency is not only totally unacceptable, but also to a degree frightening). According to independent assessment, about 98% of the media sector is held by three conglomerates. Since the trend of consolidation is and has historically been upward, fewer and fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media in our country. Media ownership in Australia is one of the most concentrated in the world ( Learn more). We don't put up a paywall – we believe in free access to information of public interest. Well, unlike many news organisations, we have no sponsors, no corporate or ideological interests. The project was supported by a Collaborative Health Research Projects grant, an NSERC Discovery grant, the Government of Ontario, and the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. ![]() Isabelle Brunette, an ophthalmology and corneal transplant expert. May Griffith, an expert in cornea regeneration, and Dr. Interdisciplinary collaborators included Université de Montréal scientists Dr. Marcelo Muñoz and Aidan MacAdam played big roles in creating the novel technology. Alarcon was the study's senior author who guided the material design aspect of the research, while uOttawa's Dr. The research findings are also the focus of a patent application, which is presently under negotiations for licensing.ĭr. The technology was developed to be clinically translatable, meaning all components must be designed to be ultimately manufacturable following strict standards for sterility," Dr. "We had to engineer each part of the components involved in the technology, from the light source to the molecules used in the study. The rigorous research took over seven years to reach the publication stage. Alarcon, whose uOttawa lab focuses on developing new materials with regenerative capabilities for tissue of the heart, skin, and cornea. We anticipate our material will remain stable and be non-toxic in human corneas," says Dr. Our cumulative data indicates that the materials are non-toxic and remain for several weeks in an animal model. "Our material was engineered to harvest the blue light energy to trigger the on-the-spot assembling of the material into a cornea-like structure. Testing in large animal models will be necessary prior to clinical human trials. ![]() The research team – which employed a much smaller blue light dosage compared to what's been used in other studies – also successfully tested the technology in an ex vivo pig cornea model. In vivo experiments using a rat model indicated that the light-activated hydrogel could thicken corneas without side effects. Alarcon says this then becomes a transparent material with similar properties to those measured in pig corneas. When pulsed with low-energy blue light, the injected peptide-based hydrogel hardens and forms into a tissue-like 3D-structure within minutes. In the form of a viscous liquid, the material gets injected within corneal tissue after a tiny pocket is surgically created. The biomaterials devised and tested by the team are comprised of short peptides and naturally occurring polymers called glycosaminoglycans. The collaborative team's work was published in Advanced Functional Materials, a high-impact scientific journal. But injury or infection results in scarring of the cornea. It controls and directs light rays into the eye and helps achieve clear vision. The cornea is the protective, dome-like surface of the eye in front of the iris and pupil. ![]() Emilio Alarcon, an Associate Professor at the uOttawa Faculty of Medicine and researcher at the BioEngineering and Therapeutic Solutions (BEaTS) group at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. We are confident this could become a practical solution to treat patients living with diseases that negatively impact corneal shape and geometry, including keratoconus," says Dr. "Our technology is a leap in the field of corneal repair. Transplant operations are the current gold standard for ailments resulting in thinning corneas such as keratoconus, a poorly understood eye disease that results in loss of vision for many people. This technology is a potential game-changer in corneal repair tens of millions of people across the globe suffer from corneal diseases and only a small fraction are eligible for corneal transplantation. Guided by biomimetic design-innovation inspired by nature-the multidisciplinary researchers' compelling results show that a novel light-activated material can be used to effectively reshape and thicken damaged corneal tissue, promoting healing and recovery. An injectable biomaterial activated by pulses of low-energy blue light has tremendous potential for on-the-spot repair to the domed outer layer of the eye, a team of University of Ottawa researchers and their collaborators have revealed.
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