An Australian biotech entrepreneur and bio-engineer has invented a pioneering cornea production process that could help to cure millions of non-hereditary blindness. Professor Gerard Sutton, co-founder of Bienco, aims to mass produce natural corneas through laboratory cultivation for transplantation into the visually impaired.
With the help of $35 million in funding from Australia’s Medical Research Future Fund. Professor Sutton claims he and his team are just 3-4 years away from attaining this goal, which will cement the country’s reputation as the bioengineering centre of the globe.
As cornea transplantation currently relies on donor corneas, which are in extremely short supply, the new mass manufacturing process is much needed – particularly as there is only one donor cornea available per 70 people waiting for a transplant!
Source – Good News Network