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Industry/research collaboration leads to fast-track for eye therapy

By 13 de November de 2012November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 13.11.2012

Industry/research collaboration leads to fast-track for eye therapy

Last Tuesday –within the framework of the Biomedical Research Networking Center in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine (CIBER- BBN)– IBEC, based in the Barcelona Science park, signed an agreement with pharmaceutical company Ferrer and the universities of Valladolid and the Basque Country to work towards developing a stem cell-based therapy to regenerate the surface of the eye.


Over ten million patients suffer bilateral blindness due to corneal pathologies that cause the cornea to become opaque. The researchers have been working on the reconstruction of the ocular surface using bone marrow stem cells, which are grown on a matrix which reproduces the eye tissue and then implanted in the patient.

IBEC’s role in the research has been to develop functionalized biomaterials that support and stimulate stem cells growth to enable re-epithelization of the damaged cornea. These scaffolds can be sutured to the patient’s eye and will offer a temporary support to deliver the stem cells to the eye surface in order to regenerate it.

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