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| Biocornea project will receive a subsidization from SenterNovem |
| 2009/12/28 |
| Aeon Astron Europe BV (AAE) will receive a EURO 300,000 subsidization from SenterNovem, an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, for its development of patent-pending product "Biocornea". The product is design to restore vision to the blind. It has been estimated around 10 million people in the world suffer corneal blindness. Only 100,000 corneal transplants are performed worldwide, due to the lack of donor tissue. This issue has been described as an international crisis. Corneal blindness may be caused by accident or disease damaging the front of the eye. If the rest of the eye is fully functioning, then the cornea is the only part needed to restore sight. Accordingly, scientists have tried to create an artificial cornea for more than 200 years. Currently artificial corneas on the market are made of materials that simulate most of the characteristics of the natural cornea. However, a major drawback to the current generation of artificial corneal implants is that they are not biodegradable. Designers at AAE have observed the fact that a patient with current corneal implants will constantly feel uncomfortable due to the non-biodegradability of the materials. While this non-biodegradable artificial cornea protects the eye and the implant from small mechanical injuries, they are also a common source of infection and deposits on the patient's eye. As a result, a total biodegradable artificial cornea designed by AAE may decrease the postoperative complications in cornea transplantation surgeries, such as infection and optical depositions. This project involves enterprises in three states: The Netherlands, Taiwan and China. BOBC, Taiwan, is the original source of the new artificial cornea and has transferred its technology to AAE through an exclusive licensing agreement and technology transfer. Meanwhile, product design and fine tuning will be mainly done by AAE, the Netherlands. Shanghai Fudan University Zhong Shan Hospital, China, is to conduct animal study and future clinical trials. In short, AAE is leading, organizing, coordinating and executing this project. With the generous subsidization form SenterNovem, AAE will be able to accelerate its research and development activities so that vision-disabled people across that planet can soon benefit from this enhanced technology. |
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