WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The research team at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus will receive around $46 million in federal funding over the next five years to work on the innovative eye transplant project.
'This is no easy undertaking, but I believe we can achieve this together,' said Dr. Kia Washington, the lead researcher for the University of Colorado-led team. 'And in fact I've never been more hopeful that a cure for blindness is within reach.'
The funding from the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health will help the team in focusing on the first-ever vision-restoring eye transplant by using 'novel stem cell and bioelectronic technologies.'
According to the university, the researchers will work on various topics, such as reattaching the optic nerve, studying ways to control immune responses, and tackling neurodegenerative conditions.
The CU Anschutz will collaborate with researchers at institutions across the country for the project.
'In the broader picture, achieving this would be probably the most monumental task in medicine within the last several decades,' said Dr. Daniel Pelaez of the University of Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute.
Pelaez explained to The Denver Post that only four organ systems have not been successfully transplanted yet - the inner ear, the brain, the spinal cord and the eye. And, if researchers can successfully complete the eye transplant and restore the vision, then it will unlock lots of opportunities to repair other parts such as brain and spinal cord.
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