An ambitious endeavor to restore sight unites the Keck School of Medicine of USC with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and several other institutions from academia and beyond. A federal funding agency that supports high-impact research capable of driving biomedical and health breakthroughs has awarded up to $47 million for a project aimed at moving eye transplants to restore vision closer to reality. The six-year award from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA) program is intended to supercharge an interdisciplinary effort to bring eye transplantation forward to clinical trial.
To date, only one whole-eye transplant has ever been successfully performed. The experimental procedure was part of a face transplant operation by NYU Langone Health surgeons in 2023. While the transplanted eye was still viable one year later, the organ has not yet provided sight.
The USC Roski Eye Institute at the Keck School of Medicine of USC is one of eight organizations leading the project, known as Total Human Eye-allotransplantation Innovation Advancement (THEIA). The team, led by Kia Washington, MD at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, includes Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the Foundation Fighting Blindness, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, the National Eye Institute and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
The project’s research strategy includes components aimed at preserving donated eyes to ensure they are viable for transplant, attaching and repairing the optic nerve, and determining the logistical and technical details of the whole procedure through post-operative care. The approach to pursuing this project encompasses cutting-edge technologies, including cell-based and gene-based therapies, as well as devices for augmenting activity in nerves that USC’s team will direct.
Kimberly Gokoffski, MD, PhD, a neuro-ophthalmologist and surgeon-scientist at the Keck School of Medicine is leading USC’s part of the endeavor. “Until ARPA-H created the opportunity, the concept of eye transplantation felt too sci-fi, too out of reach, for many,” said Gokoffski, a Dean’s Associate Professor of Clinical Ophthalmology at the medical school and Associate Director for Research at the USC Institute for Technology and Medical Systems, a joint initiative of the Keck School of Medicine and USC Viterbi School of Engineering. “However, because of recent medical and scientific advancements, a lot of us began to realize that this was something worth pursuing.”
Convening the right expertise for this challenge required bringing together a unique blend of academic medical centers, a private foundation and a government institute. Researchers in THEIA are already far along in developing the technologies and techniques involved. Gokoffski plays a leadership role in two THEIA target areas: advancing a system for directing nerve growth with electrical stimulation; and creating the protocols for identifying suitable donors and patients, performing the eye transplant procedure and aftercare.
To accomplish these targets, Gokoffski has assembled a team of researchers from USC and the University of California, Irvine. The members represent a diverse array of disciplines: ophthalmology, neurosurgery, neurobiology and bioengineering. The team includes Gianluca Lazzi, PhD, the director of the USC Institute for Technology and Medical Systems, Mark Humayun, MD, PhD, the inventor of an FDA-approved “bionic eye” device for restoring vision, and Arthur Toga, PhD, a world-renowned expert in brain imaging.
She has also partnered with companies such as Neurotech, which produces an implant that releases growth factors, and Boston Scientific, whose brain implants are currently used to treat a number of neurologic conditions. For Gokoffski, engaging partners in industry is integral to accelerating progress.
“I don’t consider this to be an exploratory or discovery award but rather a chance to demonstrate efficacy,” she said. “We’re taking what we know works and trying it out in combination with advances made by other experts in the field. I wanted to find collaborators most likely to help translate the science to the clinic, as fast as possible.”
Read the entire Keck School of Medicine article written by Wayne Lewis here:
Photo credit: Ricardo Carrasco III