and have been, integrated into clinical trials for translational benefit for patient populations.
Prof. Neil Lagali (Linköping University) focussed on the rise of hydrogel–based biomaterials as effective therapeutic platforms for ocular therapy, detailing the challenges associated with the development, testing, and obtaining of ethical/regulatory approval for conducting clinical investigations.
Dr. Ishbel MacDonald (MacDonald Regulatory Ltd) built on this talk by giving an overview, in the general sense, of considerations to be made when developing and bringing a concept for an ocular therapeutic from bench to bedside.
Dr. Rosemarie Carew (FIRECREST Solutions) then highlighted the importance of the design of a clinical trial in general – particularly from a personnel point of view. Dr. Carew then demoed a number of innovative digital strategies FIRECREST Solutions have deployed for a number of different trials across Europe that have proven efficacy in reducing trials costings, improving compliance, and increasing site/patient engagement.
Dr. Anne-Marie Bleau (Sylentis) then detailed her company’s experiences in bringing their RNAi-based drugs to market. In light of the content of the first three talks, the journey and successes of two different drugs from in vitro, to in vivo, to patient trials was eye-opening (pun intended).
Dr. Naomi Chadderton (Trinity College Dublin) detailed her experiences in contributing to a two-decade long research and development program at TCD that has used next-gen sequencing to improve the diagnosis, prognosis and understanding of a number of ocular diseases. This research has enabled a number of gene-based therapies to transition from a basic to translational setting, and in some instances even commercial.
The session finished with Kelly Mulfaul (Trinity College Dublin) who had an excellent opportunity to practise for her viva (scheduled the following week) by detailing some of her PhD findings which demonstrate TLR2’s role in oxidative stress and complement activation in translational models of age-related macular degeneration.
It is known that therapeutic development is time consuming (15 years average), expensive, and often met with low success - for every 500 therapeutic interventions which demonstrate positive outcome in animal models, there is one that might translate to humans. This success ratio is often lower for ocular therapeutics owing to the challenges herein. Learning the additional processes involved in taking an idea for an ocular therapy from basic to translational research was fascinating; the patient model and experimental protocols, the study designs and data evaluation, proper reporting – it was very informative to hear first-hand accounts of the impact these aspects had on a study outcome, for better and for worse.
The workshop then brought to a close with awards for posters for Alan Hibbitts of Royal College of Surgeons for his overview of an anti-fibrotic hydrogel designed to treat glaucoma patients, and Marina Zaki of University College Dublin for her work on the state-of-play of EU and FDA regulations for ocular therapeutics.
While this was one of the smallest conferences I’ve attended, it only strengthened my opinion that these intimate gatherings are more often than not the most worthwhile to attend. Attracting leading experts in the field from Brazil, USA, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden to name but a few, I not only got a chance to see them disseminate and discuss their highly impactful, innovative work which is leading ocular research today, but I got ample opportunity to discuss my work with them in great detail, exchange ideas and opinions, and forge new collaborative links for the future.
To give some perspective, this coming week I am presenting my work at XXIII Biennial Meeting of the International Society for Eye Research (ISER); one of the biggest eye and vision research meetings in the world, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Whilst there, I have scheduled meet-ups with some of the attendees from the ‘New Frontiers in Ocular Therapeutics’ I got the opportunit