LambdaVision and its implementation partner Space Tango announced last week of their selection by NASA to receive a five million dollar funding award. The funding will support LambdaVision’s development of the first protein-based artificial retina to restore meaningful vision for patients who are blind or have lost significant sight due to advanced retinitis pigmentosa (RP) with follow-on applications in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). As part of this award, the company, together with Space Tango, will explore the benefits of microgravity for producing LambdaVision’s artificial retina on the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory located in low-Earth orbit (LEO)
The award will cover a series of flights to the ISS over three years to evaluate and improve on-orbit production processes, and to produce artificial retinas that will then be evaluated on Earth for the potential to restore vision to patients suffering from retinal degenerative diseases.
Once validated, this process could also provide the foundation for a number of products that could be manufactured in space with clinical benefit to patients and process improvement across technology industries on Earth.
The artificial retina naturally mimics the light-absorbing properties of human photoreceptors and is capable of activating the degenerative retinas of blind patients. The implantable technology is produced through a layer-by-layer manufacturing process that ensures the artificial retina is dense enough to absorb appropriate amounts of light.
Exploring production of the artificial retina for a rare disease before moving to diseases which affect a significantly larger portion of the population, such as AMD, provides several strategic advantages toward the creation of a new LEO biomedical sector. These include more manageable production volumes required to supply clinical trials, and a step-wise transition to commercial production volumes and scale required for future applications reaching a larger patient population. Upon finalization of optimal production processes and pre-clinical studies, LambdaVision intends to initiate clinical trials for the treatment of advanced RP.