Page 78 - The Indian Optician Digital Edition January-February 2022
P. 78
A clear cornea, the window that lets through
light at the front of the eye, is crucial to good THE BIENCO CONSORTIUM,
vision. However, injury and disease can damage AIMS TO CREATE A FULLY
one or more of its five layers, and it will not
always heal on its own. ARTIFICIAL CORNEA THAT
“The endothelial layer of the cornea is made CAN BE USED INSTEAD OF
up of cells that don’t divide normally after DONOR TISSUE
birth, so if they become damaged, they cannot
heal effectively and you end up with a swollen,
opaque cornea,” says Professor Daniell. Queensland University of Technology are leading
development on the other layers.
The BIENCO consortium, announced in
December 2021, aims to create a fully artificial Professor Daniell first started discussing
cornea that can be used instead of donor tissue. the idea of a tissue-engineered cornea with
BIENCO is being funded by a Medical Research Professor Qiao ten years ago. Over this period,
Future Fund Grant under the Australian the work on developing a bioengineered cornea
Government Frontier Health and Medical led to significant achievements.
Research Initiative.
Rather than work on the full cornea from
Professor Daniell’s team at CERA, along scratch, they approached the final goal step-by-
with the University of Melbourne’s School of step. “The interactions between corneal surgery,
Engineering led by Professor Greg Qiao, are chemical engineering, polymer science and cell
building two layers of the artificial cornea: the biology are much more complicated than they
epithelium (the surface layer of the cornea) and initially appear,” says Professor Daniell.
the endothelium (the delicate single layer of
cells lining the back of the cornea). “Some cells like growing on surfaces that
others don’t. We know a lot about the cells,
Professor Daniell says that a bioengineered but finding the best ways to grow the cells on
cornea has major benefits, the first being the novel polymers and making hydrogels
unlimited supply. With the possibility of ordering more biocompatible, as well as transparent and
a cornea off the rack, there wouldn’t be a tough enough to withstand surgery, has been
requirement of one donor for surgery. “Also, if a real challenge.”
the operation fails you won’t have wasted any
precious donor tissue.” Based on this work and in collaboration with
EverSight, the US’ largest non-profit community-
The second major benefit, according to based eye bank network, they are also
Professor Daniell, would be increased patient developing CorGel. This is a scaffold that makes
safety as the surgery would be safer, with no risk endothelial keratoplasty, a transplant of the
of transplanted viruses and potentially reduced endothelial layer of the cornea, easier to perform.
rates of rejection. “Rejection rates can be an
issue when you put donor tissue into another A disc of endothelium, which has several
person. With a synthetic cornea you should be properties that are not good for surgery, is
able to reduce the chance of rejection.” attached onto the CorGel hydrogel scaffold,
which can then very easily be used to attach to
In addition to a fully bioengineered cornea, the eye. Without CorGel, the donor endothelium
the group is also collaborating on developing can curl up, making transplants a significant
partial transplants for individual layers. Professor challenge for surgeons to perform. It is also a
Gerard Sutton at the University of Sydney, good material for growing cells for transplants.
Professor Gordon Wallace at the University of There is hope that human trials could begin as
Wollongong and Professor Damien Harkin at the soon as next year.
| JAN-FEB 2022 | 74 TECH UPDATE
