Grant: Project Grant

Fuchs endothelial corneal dystrophy is a genetic disease of the inner layer of the cornea, called the endothelium. It affects 4% of people to various degrees in their lifetime. Symptoms are progressive, leading to severe eye pain and cloudy vision if left untreated. At present the only effective treatment available for these eyes is corneal transplantation. Unfortunately donor corneas are in short supply, meaning that individuals are often forced to wait until their symptoms are severe before receiving their required transplant. This application proposes to develop ways to improve corneal endothelial cell health, by increasing the degree to which these cells adhere to the patients own cornea. This new approach may allow treatment of patients earlier and eventually to postpone their corneal transplantation for several years. This new approach could also benefit tissue engineering techniques, allowing one donor cornea to be used to generate several corneal transplants that would treat several patients.