LOS ANGELES (Dec. 18, 2024) — Cedars-Sinai is participating in a major national research and surgical effort aimed at curing total blindness through whole eye transplantation, a pioneering approach to restoring vision. The organization has been selected to receive up to $6 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA) program.
Cedars-Sinai, part of a national multicenter consortium, will be responsible for developing protocols for the procurement and preservation of donor tissue as well as the eye transplant surgeries themselves. The Cedars-Sinai effort is being led by Curtis L. Cetrulo Jr., MD, vice chair of Research in the Jim and Eleanor Randall Department of Surgery and director of the Division of Plastic Surgery at Cedars-Sinai.
“Vision loss affects over 7 million Americans and this award represents an opportunity to really move the needle in our treatment of blindness. With this funding, I’m confident we can make progress toward eye transplantation,” Cetrulo said. “As the only clinically active vascularized composite allotransplantation program approved for face and eye transplantation on the West Coast, we are in a unique position to design the protocols that will allow for successful optic nerve connection and regeneration. We will also be addressing preservation of the donor eye tissue in transit to safeguard the optic nerve and retina, which are very sensitive to periods of decreased blood flow.”
Cedars-Sinai joins several partners, including the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, the effort’s primary award recipient. The other partners are Johns Hopkins University, University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, University of Southern California, the National Eye Institute and the Foundation for Fighting Blindness. The ARPA-H funding for the project totals up to $46 million, with up to $6 million dedicated to Cedars-Sinai’s clinical surgical efforts.
ARPA-H is a federal agency established to advance high-potential, high-impact biomedical and health research that cannot be readily accomplished through traditional research or commercial activity.
In its clinical transplantation practice, Cedars-Sinai will employ the robotic Symani Surgical System, which was recently acquired by the hospital. Currently, Cedars-Sinai is the only institution on the West Coast utilizing this new and highly specialized robotic microsurgery technology, which scales down the surgeon’s movements significantly for extreme precision.
“This is just another example of how the Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai strives to be at the forefront of the most innovative and life-changing procedures,” said Cristina Ferrone, MD, chair of the Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai and the Linda and Jim Lippman Chair in Surgical Oncology. “The work our team is doing on this project has the potential to transform clinical practice and impact the lives of millions of people around the globe.”
Cedars-Sinai is a leader in treating eye disease with novel approaches. Previously, Clive Svendsen, PhD, professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine and executive director of the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute, received a $10.5 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to launch a clinical trial testing treatments for retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited eye disease with no known cure.
Read more from the Cedars-Sinai Blog: Pioneering Advances in Surgery
