ARPA-H invests in four research teams for eye transplant project

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced four research teams will receive awards from the newly-established Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA) program.

First, bring me up to date on ARPA-H and this program.

HHS’s ARPA-H is a research funding agency that supports and advances high-potential, high-impact biomedical and health research that otherwise wouldn’t be accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity.

The goal: To leverage research advances for real-world impact and provide health solutions.

About THEA: Launched at the beginning of 2024, this vision loss restoration initiative is seeking to transplant an entire human eye and—as a result—restore vision for the blind and visually impaired.

Its mission: Developing new technologies and therapies that operate as regenerative solutions to preserve or regrow nerves from the eye to the brain.

So how were the recipients of these awards selected?

The program initiated a call for research proposal submissions based on three technical areas (TAs):

Retrieval of donors’ eyes and tissue preservation
Optic nerve repair and regeneration
Surgical procedures, postop care, and functional assessment

And these resulting awards?

Totaling an accumulative $125 million, the awards were granted to research teams who will test and evaluate “the best therapies to regenerate cranial nerves, maintain critical structures in the eye (such as the retina and optic nerve after transplant), and prevent postoperative inflammation or rejection,” according to ARPA-H.

The basis for this: Microsurgical techniques and genetic / cell-based therapies to preserve or regrow nerves from the eye to the brain.

Now the important question: Who are these recipients?

The four teams are led by:

InGel Therapeutics (spun out from Harvard)
- TA: #2
  - The focus: 3D-printed click-lock gel technology with micro-tunneled scaffolds containing stem cell-derived retinal cells.
Stanford University
- TAs: #1, 2, and 3
  - The focus: Donor eye procurement, developing new strategies to promote survival and regeneration of the transplanted cells, and performing transplant surgeries.
The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
- TAs: #2 and 3
  - The focus: Developing novel stem cell and bioelectronic technologies to promote nerve regeneration and performing transplant surgeries.
The University of Miami Bascom Palmer Eye Institute
- TA: #1
  - The focus: Donor eye procurement and preservation outside the body with its eye-ECMOTM device
    - See our coverage

To note: Each award is based on the team meeting their contractual milestones.

Lastly, how will success be measured?

Ideally, the program is looking to generate new treatments and solutions for blindness-causing ocular diseases (such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy) that currently have no cure.

Plus: Outside the realm of eye transplantation, these approaches may also prove advantageous to patients with neurological conditions such as spinal cord injuries.