Revolutionary eye-drop

Injuries to the surface of the eye as a result of burns, infections, inflammation, trauma and surgery, can cause corneal scarring and opacity – a leading cause of visual loss. There are few therapeutic options to modify, minimise or reverse scarring to maintain corneal transparency and visual function, and these are not always effective.

Researchers at the Healthcare Technologies Institute, led by Professor Liam Grover, and in collaboration with Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham have developed a revolutionary eye-drop to prevent corneal scarring and blindness.

eye-drop to prevent corneal scarring and blindnessThe anti-scarring eye drop will not only have significant positive impacts for patients, but also socio-economic influences. Patients may be self-administered in a home and/or community setting, negating the need for prolonged hospitalisation and clinic attendance.

Birmingham hosts the largest medical device cluster in the UK with an impressive and extensive infrastructure in addition to world class hospital trusts, including the Institute for Translational Medicine and the new Medical Device Testing and Evaluation Centre (MD-TEC) linked to our Healthcare Technology Research Institute. Co-located with a host of clinical/academic centres of excellence focused on translational challenges – such as the NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMRC) – this provides academics, clinicians and industry with a perfect environment to rapidly mature their nascent technologies, provide training opportunities, and act as an integrated coordination point to bring multi-disciplinary teams together around shared challenges and opportunities.

For more information, please contact:

Professor Liam Grover, Director of the Healthcare Technologies Institute: L.M.Grover@bham.ac.uk
Emma Lardner (PA to Professor Liam Grover): E.C.Lardner@bham.ac.uk