{"id":132858,"date":"2024-12-03T14:31:51","date_gmt":"2024-12-03T07:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=132858"},"modified":"2024-12-03T14:31:51","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T07:31:51","slug":"cu-anschutz-launches-moonshot-to-cure-blindness-via-eye-transplants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=132858","title":{"rendered":"CU Anschutz launches &#8220;moonshot&#8221; to cure blindness via eye transplants"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>As part of a national \u201cmoonshot\u201d to cure blindness, researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus will receive as much as $46 million in federal funding over the next five years to pursue a first-of-its-kind full eye transplantation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is no easy undertaking, but I believe we can achieve this together,\u201d said Dr. Kia Washington, the lead researcher for the University of Colorado-led team, during a press conference Monday. \u201cAnd in fact I\u2019ve never been more hopeful that a cure for blindness is within reach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The CU team was one of four in the United States that received funding awards from the <a href=\"https:\/\/arpa-h.gov\/news-and-events\/arpa-h-announces-pioneering-investments-restore-vision-people-who-are-blind\">federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health<\/a>, or ARPA-H. The CU-based group will focus on achieving the first-ever vision-restoring eye transplant by using \u201cnovel stem cell and bioelectronic technologies,\u201d according to a news release announcing the funding.<\/p>\n<p>The work will be interdisciplinary, Washington and others said, and will link together researchers at institutions across the country. The four teams that received the funding will work alongside each other on distinct approaches, though officials said the teams would likely collaborate and eventually may merge depending on which research avenues show the most promise toward achieving the ultimate goal of transplanting an eye and curing blindness.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Calvin Roberts, who will oversee the broader project for ARPA-H, said the agency wanted to take multiple \u201cshots on goal\u201d to ensure progress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the broader picture, achieving this would be probably the most monumental task in medicine within the last several decades,\u201d said Dr. Daniel Pelaez of the University of Miami\u2019s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which also received ARPA-H funding. Pelaez is the lead investigator for that team, which has pursued new procedures to successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors, amid other research.<\/p>\n<p>He told The Denver Post that only four organ systems have not been successfully transplanted: the inner ear, the brain, the spinal cord and the eye. All four are part of the central nervous system, which does not repair itself when damaged.<\/p>\n<p>If researchers can successfully transplant the human eye and restore vision to the patient, it might help unlock deeper discoveries about repairing damage to the brain and spine, Pelaez said, as well as addressing hearing loss.<\/p>\n<p>To succeed, researchers must successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors and then successfully connect and repair the optical nerve, which takes information from the eye and tells the brain what the eye sees.<\/p>\n<p>A team at New York University <a href=\"https:\/\/nyulangone.org\/news\/nyu-langone-health-performs-worlds-first-whole-eye-partial-face-transplant\">performed a full eye transplant<\/a> on a human patient in November 2023, though the procedure \u2014 while a \u201cremarkable achievement,\u201d Pelaez said \u2014 did not restore the patient\u2019s vision. It was also part of a partial face transplant; other approaches pursued via the ARPA-H funding will involve eye-specific transplants.<\/p>\n<p>Washington, the lead CU researcher, said she and her colleagues have already completed the eye transplant procedure \u2014 albeit without vision restoration \u2014 in rats.<\/p>\n<p>The CU team will next work on large animals to advance \u201coptic nerve regenerative strategies,\u201d the school said, as well as to study immunosuppression, which is critical to ensuring that patients\u2019 immune systems don\u2019t reject a donated organ. The goal is to eventually advance to human trials.<\/p>\n<p>Pelaez and his colleagues have completed their eye-removal procedure in cadavers, he said, and they\u2019ve also studied regeneration in several animals that are capable of regenerating parts of their eyes, like salamanders or zebra fish.\u00a0His team\u2019s funding will focus in part on a life-support machine for the eye to keep it healthy and viable during the removal process.<\/p>\n<p>InGel Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based Harvard spinoff and the lead of a third team, will pursue research on 3-D printed technology and \u201cmicro-tunneled scaffolds\u201d that carry certain types of stem cells as part of a focus on optical nerve regeneration and repair, <a href=\"https:\/\/arpa-h.gov\/news-and-events\/arpa-h-announces-pioneering-investments-restore-vision-people-who-are-blind\">ARPA-H said.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>ARPH-A, created two years ago, will oversee the teams\u2019 work. Researchers at 52 institutions nationwide will also contribute to the teams. The CU-led group will include researchers from the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nei.nih.gov\/\">the National Eye Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The teams will simultaneously compete and collaborate: Pelaez said his team has communicated with researchers at CU and at Stanford, another award recipient, about their eye-removal research.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6854504\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter size-article_inline\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" lazyautosizes lazyload\" alt=\"CU Anschutz scientific and surgical team leader Dr. Kia Washington delivers remarks regarding the current state of eye transplantation during a press conference at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. CU Anschutz announced receiving up to $46 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to advance research for curing blindness through human eye transplantation. (Photo by Eric Lutzens\/The Denver Post)\" width=\"7733\" data-sizes=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/TDP-L-CUANSCHUTZBLINDNESS290x.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1\" data-attachment-id=\"6854504\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/TDP-L-CUANSCHUTZBLINDNESS290x.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 620w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/TDP-L-CUANSCHUTZBLINDNESS290x.jpg?fit=780%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 780w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/TDP-L-CUANSCHUTZBLINDNESS290x.jpg?fit=810%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 810w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/TDP-L-CUANSCHUTZBLINDNESS290x.jpg?fit=1280%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 1280w,https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.denverpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/TDP-L-CUANSCHUTZBLINDNESS290x.jpg?fit=1860%2C9999px&amp;ssl=1 1860w\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Kia Washington delivers remarks during a press conference at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024. (Photo by Eric Lutzens\/The Denver Post)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"related right\"\/>\n<p>The total funding available for the teams is $125 million, ARPA-H officials said Monday, and it will be distributed in phases, in part dependent on teams\u2019 success.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver in Congress, acknowledged the recent election results at the press conference Monday and pledged to continue fighting to preserve ARPA-H\u2019s funding under President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n<p>The effort to cure blindness, Washington joked, was \u201cbiblical\u201d in its enormity \u2014 a reference to the Bible story in which Jesus cures a blind man. She and others also likened it to a moonshot, meaning the effort to successfully put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon nearly 50 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>If curing blindness is similar to landing on the moon, then the space shuttle has already left the launchpad, Washington said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have launched,\u201d she said, \u201cand we are on our trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/myaccount.denverpost.com\/dp\/preference\">Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get health news sent straight to your inbox.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Originally Published: <time datetime=\"2024-12-02 14:16:52\">December 2, 2024 at 2:16 PM MST<\/time><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2024\/12\/02\/university-colorado-anschutz-blindness-cure-eye-transplant-medical-research\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of a national \u201cmoonshot\u201d to cure blindness, researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus will receive as much as $46 million in federal funding over the next five &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=132858\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132858"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132858\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=132858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=132858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}