Bioengineered Cornea
Bioengineered Cornea
According to the WHO, corneal opacity accounts for over 4% of blindness worldwide, leading to more than 1.5–2 million cases each year
Globally, it is estimated that 4.9 million suffer from bilateral corneal blindness and 23 million from unilateral
Greater than 12.7 million people are waiting for a corneal transplant globally
India has a huge burden of bilateral (1.2 million) and Unilateral (5 - 6 million) corneal blindness. Each year, the burden increases by 30K new cases of blindness.
More than half of the donated corneas do not meet standards for transplant.
In order to address various kinds of corneal diseases and defects, Pandorum has developed Bioengineered Cornea – a class of products powered by tissue regenerative Exosomes and tissue-mimetic biomaterials, in order to promote regeneration of healthy functional cornea
Bioengineered Lenticule
Worldwide 28 million people are affected by corneal blindness and there is only 1 donor cornea tissue available among 70 in the waiting list. Cornea is a 0.6 mm thick transparent part of the eye whose ~80% thickness comprises of outermost epithelium layer followed by bulk stroma. Majority of the corneal damages leading to blindness and cases awaiting transplant are spanning these two layers. Our bioprinted lenticules can address such problems, reducing the burden on cornea availability, filling the huge gap in demand and supply, and giving vision to millions waiting for transplant.
The bioprinted lenticules are prepared using proprietary bioinks, printed with cornea mimetic biopolymers and incorporating exosomes based on the patients’ requirements. This can be deployed in sutureless manner and our data shows it supports growth of epithelium on the surface and viability of cells in the matrix. Bioprinted lenticules are transformative solution to corneal transplants, which otherwise has inconsistency issue as every donated cornea is different. We have the capacity to produce these lenticules with high scale and consistency using our bioink and advanced bioprinter technology from our close collaborator CellInk.
To know more, watch our recent webinar with CellInk
Kuragenx- the ‘Liquid’ Cornea
A rare yet severe condition of corneal blindness is corneal ulceration, where patients suffer from inflammation, fibrosis, stromal melting, and damage to the nerves. Such serious cases of corneal damage, like a subset known as Neurotrophic keratitis, have high risk of transplant rejection and are even considered untreatable.
We have developed an advanced regenerative therapeutic option, the Kuragenx, comprising exosomes specialized for promoting cornea regeneration, combined with biopolymeric solution. This can be applied as drops on the cornea that solidifies in less than 10 min using visible light. In this formulation, the biopolymer acts as sacrificial matrix that allows sustained release of exosomes which supresses the ulceration defining condition like inflammation, reverses fibrosis, regenerates nerves and restores stromal thickness.
Kuragenx is our flagship product that can reverse an ulcerative cornea to a healthy state in less than a year. It has been developed with our excellent clinical partners in the US and India. In the US we have Dr. Satish Nadig and Dr. Ramez Haddadin, Northwestern University-Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago and in India Dr. Virender S. Sangwan, Dr. Shroff’s charity eye hospital, New Delhi as our clinical collaborators.
Our exciting work and progress in developing this transformative technology got a special place in an article in Fortune India
Animal studies – Application of Kuragenx
Uniform distribution and proliferation of cells inside Kuragenx