With corneal blindness affecting an estimated 12.7 million people worldwide, novel treatment approaches are required. Corneal transplantation is the current gold-standard treatment option for corneal blindness. When corneal transplants fail, prosthetic devices can be used in the most severe cases, but those cases are relatively rare. For the vast majority of corneal blindness, transplantation is the only option for regaining vision.
Two people have pioneered a way to develop a bioengineered collagen implant using pig skin. One of them Neil Lagali is trained as an engineer in physics and optics, but for the past 20 years, doing research focusing on corneal diseases. and currently a Professor of Experimental Ophthalmology at Linköping University in Sweden.
The other is Mehrdad Rafat, a biomedical engineer with a Ph.D. in Chemical & Biological Engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada. who has more than 20 years of experience in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering.
They used collagen to create a bioengineered cornea, to mimic the natural cornea. Because there is no abundant and low-cost source of human collagen, they chose to use collagen sourced from pig skin. This collagen is abundant, inexpensive, highly purified and already used in FDA-approved medical products. Briefly, the purified collagen is rehydrated and crosslinked with a non-toxic chemical crosslinker that is water soluble and washes out of the implant. Its only effect is to bind the collagen fibers to strengthen the implant. Then, in a second step, the implant, to which a small amount of riboflavin (vitamin B2) was added, is exposed to UVA light, which photochemically binds the collagen fibers further to produce a robust implant, which is a hydrogel containing almost 88% water.
When only one cornea is available for every 70 needed, and over half of the world’s population does not have access to donor corneas. This is a breakthrough.
Two people have pioneered a way to develop a bioengineered collagen implant using pig skin. One of them Neil Lagali is trained as an engineer in physics and optics, but for the past 20 years, doing research focusing on corneal diseases. and currently a Professor of Experimental Ophthalmology at Linköping University in Sweden.
The other is Mehrdad Rafat, a biomedical engineer with a Ph.D. in Chemical & Biological Engineering from the University of Ottawa, Canada. who has more than 20 years of experience in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering.
They used collagen to create a bioengineered cornea, to mimic the natural cornea. Because there is no abundant and low-cost source of human collagen, they chose to use collagen sourced from pig skin. This collagen is abundant, inexpensive, highly purified and already used in FDA-approved medical products. Briefly, the purified collagen is rehydrated and crosslinked with a non-toxic chemical crosslinker that is water soluble and washes out of the implant. Its only effect is to bind the collagen fibers to strengthen the implant. Then, in a second step, the implant, to which a small amount of riboflavin (vitamin B2) was added, is exposed to UVA light, which photochemically binds the collagen fibers further to produce a robust implant, which is a hydrogel containing almost 88% water.
When only one cornea is available for every 70 needed, and over half of the world’s population does not have access to donor corneas. This is a breakthrough.
. TFS, brother 
