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

Blindness is a common and severe handicap affecting very many Canadians. Despite advances in the care of patients with eye disease, conditions that affect the retina (the layer coating the inner surface of the eye and which converts light into electrical signals for transmission along the optic nerve) still prove to be the most difficult to solve. Much research effort around the World has therefore focused attention on diseases of the retina. A major stumbling block has been the variety of different diseases affecting the retina. However treatment methods are emerging that could be applicable to many different retinal diseases. In this proposal we intend to study one such strategy that will be effective in many retinal diseases - a chemical way of bolstering the cell's natural internal signalling to resist death. In particular we intend to study ways of improving delivery of drugs known to inhibit cell death. Currently, these drugs have minimal effects because they are difficult to get to the retina and last for only a brief time. By using stem cells and nanoparticles we will improve drug delivery to a level where clinical trials can be attempted.