Project Grant R43EY028467

The National Eye Institute (NEI), under the federal Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867), awarded a $770,000 Project Grant to the Augusta University Research Institute, Inc. (doing business as Georgia Health Sciences) to support research aimed at identifying novel mechanisms and developing a new therapy for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), the leading cause of preventable blindness in children. The research project, which runs from September 2024 to September 2025, will investigate the...

This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI), under the Federal Grant Program "Vision Research" (CFDA 93.867), provides USD 462,072 to Tufts Medical Center Parent, Inc. (dba Tufts Medical Center) to study the metabolic basis of retinopathy of prematurity and potential treatments using anaplerotic substrates. The research aims to investigate fatty acid metabolic exchanges between the liver and retina, and to use anaplerotic substrates along with adeno-associated...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) awarded a $650,000 Project Grant under the FDA Research program (CFDA 93.103) to Targeted Therapy Technologies, LLC in Irvine, CA. The grant will support a Phase II expanded access clinical trial for a novel topotecan chemoplaque treatment for retinoblastoma, a rare childhood eye cancer. The chemoplaque technology aims to deliver sustained, localized topotecan treatment to the eye while minimizing systemic exposure, providing an alternative to...

This Project Grant award of $580,331 from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) aims to develop a deep learning-based diagnostic tool for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a leading cause of childhood blindness. The key products and services to be delivered under this award include: Optimizing and testing an animal-to-human (A2H) model to augment the training dataset for the deep learning-based ROP diagnostic model, using existing and newly acquired longitudinal animal ROP...

The National Eye Institute (NEI) awarded Revopsis Therapeutics, Inc. a $933,533 Project Grant under the Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) to advance the development of their first-in-class RO-104 trispecific surrobody treatment for retinal diseases. RO-104 simultaneously targets three key angiogenic factors - VEGF-A, VEGF-C, and Ang-2 - that contribute to vision loss in conditions like age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinal vein occlusion. The award will fund...

This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI), under the Vision Research federal grant program (CFDA 93.867), provides USD 1,440,325 to the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center to conduct research on using surfactant protein A (SP-A) as a potential therapeutic target to prevent retinopathy of prematurity (ROP). The research aims to characterize the SP-A/chaperone/VEGF axis, confirm the SP-A receptor MYO18A, and study the impact of SP-A on endothelial cell cytoskeleton...

This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI) under the Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) provides $1,066,178 to Tavo Biotherapeutics, Inc. (operating as Oculo Therapy LLC) to support late-stage preclinical development and GMP production of a novel extended-release intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering formulation for the treatment of glaucoma. The funding will enable critical IND-enabling studies for this first-in-class drug candidate using the FDA-approved drug pregabalin as...

This Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (CFDA 93.867 - Vision Research) supports research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to investigate how female sex hormones impact the progression of retinal degenerative disease. The $543,614 award, effective July 1, 2025 through March 31, 2030, aims to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which female sex hormones worsen photoreceptor neurodegeneration, a common pathway in conditions like retinitis pigmentosa. The...

This $440,000 Project Grant award from the National Eye Institute (NEI), under Federal Grant Program 93.867 (Vision Research), aims to develop a novel, disease-targeted anti-angiogenic therapy for treating wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The key product being developed is a neutralizing monoclonal antibody that targets a new, CNV-selective angiogenic factor discovered through the awardee's comparative ligandomics technology. This approach differs from currently approved anti-VEGF...

This Project Grant awarded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) under the Vision Research program (CFDA 93.867) funds the development and evaluation of novel surrogate augmented deep predictive learning algorithms to predict referral-warranted retinopathy of prematurity (RW-ROP). The primary goals are to: Develop algorithms that leverage early retinal images and demographic factors to accurately predict RW-ROP, enabling earlier identification of high-risk infants for close monitoring and...