Nanoscope Technologies was recently awarded three grants from the National Institutes of Health for a therapeutic opsin treatment and potential delivery systems for vision restoration in AMD patients.
NIH awarded the company a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Eye Institute (NEI) to develop and conduct preclinical evaluation of its Virus carrying Multi-Characteristics Opsin (VMCO) — a technique that reportedly helps restore vision in patients with AMD and genetic retinal diseases who have lost their photoreceptors by allowing for the stimulation of retinal cells.
Additionally, Nanoscope has been awarded two additional NIH grants to explore two localized methods of opsin delivery. The first reportedly uses a femtosecond laser to insert Multi-Characteristics Opsin (MCO) into individual cells, while the other is called Nano-enhanced Optical Delivery (NOD) where MCO is mixed with gold nanorods and entire areas of the retina can be selectively transfected by exposing to a continuous wave laser beam.
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Source: Nanoscope Technologies