Grant: Emerging Team Grant: Regenerative Medicine and Nanomedicine - LOI

This project is designed to develop tissue engineered devices to treat and prevent choroidal neovascularization (CNV) as it relates to the devastating retinal disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD). CNV involves the aberrant growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) in the choroid layer of the eye and is the leading cause of vision loss in AMD. The initial goal of this project will be to identify and define the complex cascade of growth factors (GF) mediating CNV. This will be accomplished through the use of animal models in conjunction with the manipulation of GF expression using adenoviral and gene knockout approaches. The next objective of the project will be to develop and test tissue engineered devices for the long-term delivery of molecules for the treatment of CNV. It is predicted that the research generated by the McMaster Ocular Therapeutic team in the endeavors outlined in this project will lead to the development of tissue engineered devices and drug therapies for AMD and as a result, improved ocular health and quality of life.