
Bon c'est la rentrée....



En gros, ils espèrent mettre sur le marché des cornées artificielles dans les cinq ans qui viennent. Cà donne de l'espoir.
A bientôt sur le forum!

Scientists to create first artificial cornea
Date: August 23 2004
By Lyndsay Moss
British scientists are hoping to become the first in the world to create an artificial cornea to save millions from blindness.
Researchers from Lancaster University and Sheffield University hope to succeed where other teams have failed in the race to produce the implant, which could help millions of people suffering from cornea disease.
The project has now received a $1.08 million grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council to fund the work.
Around 10 million people around the world suffer from blindness caused by cornea disease. Of these, up to half do not have access to conventional transplantation methods using donated human corneas.
In some countries, such as India and China, people are reluctant to donate body parts, and even in the UK patients can wait several months for a donor cornea to be found.
Nigel Fullwood, from Lancaster's biological sciences department, hopes they can develop the artificial cornea within five years.
The cornea is the transparent, outer window of the eye, measuring just half a millimetre thick. It acts as a powerful lens which focuses light onto the retina.
Cornea disease, which can lead to blindness, can be caused by genetic conditions, the effects of ultra violet, infections and accidents.
While cornea transplants are very successful in large numbers of patients, not all conditions are treatable this way. This led the British scientists to look at new ways of restoring sight without the need to use donated corneas.
Fullwood said that people had been trying for years to produce an artificial cornea that was as good as a conventional transplant, but without success.
"We are using a new approach," he said. "The cornea will be made from a uniquely formulated hydrogel - a polymer which has a high water content - the sort of material that soft contact lenses are made from.
"We will modify it so that it can be inserted in the same way as a conventional cornea transplant and will become fully integrated into the eye.
"If we succeed, instead of waiting for a donor cornea you will be able to get one off the shelf - in a similar way a plastic lens is used in a cataract operation." Fullwood said they hoped to be able to enter clinical trials with the artificial corneas after three years.
They also want to get commercial backing for the project, which also involves surgeon Arun Brahma from Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. "It would be good to think that we will have developed an artificial cornea within five years.
"Our ultimate goal is always that it will result in the improvement or restoration of sight," Fullwood added.