A United States consortium has been awarded up to US$46 million to support research and innovation into vision-restoring human whole eye transplantation.

The THEA (Total Human Eyeallotransplantation Advancement) program has been established to further develop a combination of medical, therapeutic, and surgical technologies to advance whole eye transplantation as a cure for blindness in people with ocularbased disease or damage.

The consortium will be led by the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (the prime recipient of the award), the Foundation Fighting Blindness, and six other US research groups. 

The Foundation’s Dr Chad Jackson, who will oversee the six-year project, said while vision-restoring whole eye transplantation holds “tremendous potential, there are significant technical and biological challenges that must be overcome before it can become a viable clinical reality”. 

Most notable was the “vexing challenge of regenerating nerve cells and re-establishing vision signal connectivity in a grafted optic nerve”, Dr Jackson said.

“By working in tandem teams on developing therapies and technologies to overcome current limitations in donor eye preservation, optic nerve regeneration, surgical techniques, and post-operation strategies, we’ll accelerate progress and bring whole eye replacement closer to clinical application.”

Describing the potential of whole eye transplantation as “truly revolutionary”, Principal investigator Dr Kia Washington from the University of Colorado said he was “thrilled to be part of the team working to advance progress toward making human whole eye allotransplantation as a cure for blindness a reality”.