Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

Ocular diseases affecting the cornea (front part of the eye) or the retina (image processing cells in the back of the eye) are leading causes of vision loss and affect millions of individuals worldwide. These diseases are either incurable or only transiently improved with current therapies. Emerging solutions that interfere with defective genes or supplement deficient ones have shown promise. However, there is a current void in treatment modalities that selectively target diseased cells on the eye, which has hindered the development of effective gene-therapy-based treatments. Several current gene therapy approaches call for the use of viruses to deliver genes, yet virus-based systems present a number of toxic side-effects. A safe, precise and selective gene delivery system for corneal and retinal cells would open novel therapeutic avenues to address diseases that are of major public health concern. The proposed research project aims to develop a targeted and non-viral gene delivery treatment for the cornea and the retina using lasers and FDA approved gold nanoparticles. This project will be performed by a multidisciplinary team of researchers with complementary expertise in lasers, nanotechnology, optics, corneal and retinal cell biology. Our team has developed an expertise in laser-mediated gene delivery into cells with high efficiency and very low toxicity using gold nanoparticles. Building on a filed patent and exciting preliminary data in cells, tissues and in live animals, we will expand our technical expertise to diseased eyes, with the aim to offer a new, safe, selective method and system to treat two important diseases leading to blindness in Canada: age-related macular degeneration and corneal endothelial dystrophies. The project will be performed with our Knowledge Transfer Users, Axis Photonics, experts in laser technologies and Optina, owner of a proprietary eye camera diagnostic system. Both will participate in the commercialisation of our technique.