John A. Moran Eye Center scientist , is part of a project bringing together more than 40 scientists, doctors, and industry experts hand-picked from around the country to make sight-restoring whole eye transplants a reality.
The is awarding up to $56 million for the six-year Viability, Imaging, Surgical, Immunomodulation, Ocular Preservation and Neuroregeneration (VISION) Strategies for Whole Eye Transplant project. The Vinberg lab is on track to receive close to $1.5 million in direct and indirect funding for the first four years as part of VISION, led by principal investigator Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, Blumenkranz Smead professor and chair of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford University.
Vinberg garnered international attention in 2022 when he published his As part of VISION, he will focus on the recovery and preservation of human organ donor eyes until and after transplantation.
鈥淲hole eye transplantation has many barriers that must be overcome, one of the largest being that we don鈥檛 have a way to regenerate the optic nerve, which carries visual information to the brain,鈥 explains Vinberg. 鈥淧art of our work will be investigating ways to sustain a human donor eye in its entirety, including the retinal neurons that carry light signals to the brain.鈥
The Vinberg lab has previously identified oxygen deprivation as the critical factor for restoring functional light-sensing tissue from the eye鈥檚 retina. Vinberg, who has a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, designed a special transportation unit that restores oxygenation and other nutrients to organ donor eyes. Vinberg also built a device to stimulate the retina and measure the electrical activity of its cells. With this approach, he was able to restore a specific electrical signal seen in living eyes, the 鈥渂 wave.鈥
The time may be right for a transplantation breakthrough: scientists can now leverage emerging microsurgical techniques, coupled with genetic and cell-based therapies, in their attempts to preserve or regrow nerves from the eye to the brain.
The VISION team is made up of a potent mix of expertise and skill, which will be needed as they simultaneously advance and create cutting-edge medical devices, artificial intelligence integrations, new surgical techniques, regenerative medicine breakthroughs, and rejection mitigation. The group will work dynamically, sharing information in real time and pursuing the most promising leads.
This research was, in part, funded by the . The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the United States Government.