Eversight partners with Emmecell to advance corneal epithelial cell therapies
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The nonprofit eye bank Eversight has partnered with Emmecell, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, to advance therapies involving donor corneal epithelial cells for treatment of eye disease.
“One donor cornea can restore vision to one recipient eye through transplantation — a miraculous gift,” Diane Hollingsworth, Eversight president and CEO, said in a company press release. “If in the future we can provide healthy endothelial cells from a donor cornea for cell therapy, that donor has the potential to restore vision in many more patients, maximizing their gift far beyond a single cornea transplant.”
According to the release, Eversight provided nearly 9,000 corneas for sight-restoring transplantation in 2023, and more than a third were distributed to 29 countries outside the U.S. With researchers estimating that just one cornea is available per 70 patients in need of transplant, alternative cell therapies could expand care, particularly in developing countries.
To potentially eliminate the need for transplantation among patients with advanced cases of corneal edema, Emmecell has developed a minimally invasive cell therapy that injects healthy corneal endothelial cells from donor corneas into recipient eyes. Cells from a single donor tissue could provide therapy for hundreds of patients using Emmecell’s magnetic cell delivery nanoparticle platform, which enhances delivery, retention and integration of healthy cells, the release stated.
“Emmecell’s mission is to bring innovative regenerative medicine out of the laboratory and into patient care,” Jeffrey L. Goldberg, MD, PhD, Emmecell co-founder and chair of the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford, said in the release. “We are confident that Eversight’s eye banking expertise, global impact, commitment to research and surgeon education, and history of innovation and leadership in their field will help further harness the power of the Emmecell platform to cure blindness for more people worldwide.”
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