SBIR-STTR Award

Endophthalmitis is a severe condition caused by inflammation of the ocular cavity and is a significant complication of corneal transplant procedures often being caused by microbial contamination of the donor tissue. The introduction of antibiotics into corneal tissue storage solutions in these drastically lowered the incidence of bacterial endophthalmitis has drastically decreased however fungal endophthalmitisis on the rise .Thus, there is a clear need for the development of new corneal tissue storage products that prevent both bacterial and fungal microbial contaminations while still preserving the integrity of the corneal tissue. iFyberthe lead organization for this effort proposes to evaluate multiple FDA approved antifungal agents both alone and combination with other antimicrobials to assess potential synergistic and or antagonistic effects with gentamicin streptomycin and other broad spectrum antibiotics iFyber will make use of high throughput screening techniques to assess efficacy of these combination treatments and will also use an innovative D human corneal tissue model to screen for potential effects on corneal tissue during storage. Together these tools will help to identify suitable formulation for corneal tissue storage solutions which will be further down selected in in vivo ocular irritation studies and transition into Phase II advanced development