Cells for Sight Transplantation & Research Programme

Marc gave his upgrade presentation entitled "Interaction between limbal stromal cells and epithelial stem cells in the corneal niche to maintain human corneal epithelium" at our department lab meeting. This was followed by his viva with Mr Steve Tuft and Dr Clare Futter. Congratulations Marc!

Congratulations to Victoria Tovell and Hannah Levis for being awarded a UCL Beacon Bursary to fund a public engagement event. They plan to start a 2 way dialogue between patient groups and researchers which will begin with a one day event hosted by the members of the CfS Research and Transplantation team. We hope this will be the start of a continued collaboration between researchers and patients. Watch this space for more details on Cornea Connect! 

Julie has joined the Scientific Advisory Committee for Aniridia Europe. The Committee is comprised of five leading aniridia clinicians and scientists from different EU countries. Their first meeting was held at the Venice Eye Bank in Mestre, Italy in November 2012. The Scientific Committee is planning a joint research strategy in collaboration with patient groups, some of whom also attended the meeting. The event was very productive and gave time for the researchers to understand the concerns and hopes of those with aniridia. The next Aniridia Europe Conference will be held in Venice in 2014.

The PLOS one article entitled "Plastic Compressed Collagen as a Novel Carrier for Expanded Human Corneal Endothelial Cells for Transplantation" authored by Hannah J. Levis, Gary S. L. Peh, Kah-Peng Toh, Rebekah Poh, Alex J. Shortt, Rosemary A. L. Drake, Jodhbir S. Mehta, Julie T. Daniels is now available for download on the PLOS ONE website. This is the result of a collaboration between members of the CfS team, members of the Singapore Eye Research Institute, Singapore and TAP Biosystems in Royston, UK. We hope to continue this very successful collaboration in the future. 

On Monday we had a (very early!) CfS Christmas lunch at the Eagle with Secret Santa too. Everyone seemed very happy with their lovely presents- especially Amanda with her history book and Marc looked very fetching in his drinking straw glasses (pic below!). Then the brave (or tone deaf as it turned out) ventured to Karaoke and managed to sing their hearts out for a few hours! There are some incriminating videos but what goes on at Karaoke, stays at Karaoke, you'll probably be pleased to hear! 

Marc Dziasko, Michael Neale and Alex Shortt raised a brilliant £626 for Movember by growing some fabulous mo's! To show support the rest of CfS joined in at a lab meeting on the last day of november. Pretty hard to talk serious science when we all look like that!! Check out their Movember page at MODOCS_ST_GEORGES. 

Welcome to Louise Morgan, who joined the Cells for Sight team this week. Louise will be working on the proof of concept RAFT study along with Lois Evans. 

Amanda Vernon presented her upgrade talk entitled "Optimisation of ex vivo culture methods for limbal epithelial cells" and after a viva with Mr Steve Tuft and Dr. Vivek Mudera, successfully completed the upgrade process. Congratulations Amanda! 

Hannah J. Levis, Gary S.L. Peh, Kah-Peng Toh, Rebekah Poh, Alex J. Shortt, Rosemary A.L. Drake, Jodhbir S. Mehta and Julie T. Daniels had their manuscript entitled 'Plastic compressed collagen as a novel carrier for expanded human corneal endothelial cells for transplantation' accepted for publication in PLOS ONE today. We hope to continue this successful collaboration with members of the Singapore Eye Research Institute and TAP Biosystems. 

Sarah Dale and Alvena Kureshi presented at the London Matrix Group which brings together scientists from different London colleges interested in matrix biology. It was the 15th Anniversary Meeting on Growth Factor Regulation & Pathology to Cytomechanics. Sarah's presentation was entitled "Identifying profibrotic targets promoting the scarring in ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid" and Alvena presented "An in vitro model to measure and demonstrate load-induced collagen matrix growth". 

Alvena Kureshi has recently returned from a very fruitful visit to the laboratory of our collaborator, Prof Jim Funderburgh in the University of Pittsburgh. We are excited that this collaboration brings together our shared interests in furthering our understanding of the behavior of corneal stromal stem cells.  We are currently investigating their potential use in the development of engineered corneal stromal equivalents.

Two manuscripts available online Epub ahead of print have recently been published by members of CFS.

Wnt signalling in an in vitro niche model for conjunctival progenitor cells

The 5th Limbal Stem Cell meeting was hosted by CFS and held at UCL, Gower Street on the 4th October 2012. It was a great success with over 50 in attendance and a varied programme of presentations. The keynote speaker Prof. Malcolm Alison from QMUL was very well received with an incredibly interesting and brilliantly presented lecture entitled "Tracing Cell Lineages in Human Epithelial Tissues". We thank Prof. Alison and all the speakers for their presentations and thank you to all those who attended, especially those from as far away as Aberdeen in the UK as well as from Germany. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year in Liverpool! 

Welcome to Lois Evans, who joins CFS as a research technician on the MRC funded project looking at RAFT in an in vivo model. We welcome you to the lab Lois- great to have you! 

We welcome Sara Galindo, a PhD student from IOBA, University of Valladolid, Spain. She will be visiting for a period of 3 months to learn how to set up a ex vivo porcine cornea model, working with Isobel Massie. Welcome Sara! 

We are very sad to say that Marina's 3 month project in the Cells for Sight Lab has come to an end. It was great to have her here- time seemed to fly by and she will definitely be missed. Hopefully Marina will be back to visit soon but in the meantime another PhD student, Sara, from her lab will visit for a 3 month project working with Isobel. 

A big welcome to Nuria Genicio who joins the lab from Galicia in Spain. She will be working as a Research Assistant with Alex Shortt on a project looking at labelling of limbal epithelial cells. Welcome to the lab Nuria- great to have you! 

So the Olympics has finally arrived in London and we are all enjoying the buzz around the city. Hannah Levis started her Games Maker shifts at the Opening Ceremony and was blown away by the awesome atmosphere. She continues her volunteering next week as the Athletics start at the Olympic Stadium. Marc Dziasko has been enjoying the French victories in the pool and is now a fan of a couple of USA water polo team members he met on the tube! Victoria Tovell heads to the Hockey on Saturday to cheer on team GB and Julie has been brushing up on the water polo rules in time for next week when she makes her way to Olympic Park to see the games. Hannah is off to the ever popular beach volleyball on Wednesday and hoping for some sunshine! 

Julie was recently recognised as a professional biologist by being admitted as a Fellow to the Society of Biology.  She is looking forward to new opportunities in the wider bioscience community and participating in Society events.

A number of the Cells for Sight team attended the International Conference on Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at UCL on 11th-13th July. Anna O'Callaghan, Alvena Kureshi and Hannah Levis presented posters at the meeting and received some good feedback about their research. 

So we all arrived back from ARVO in Fort Lauderdale, Florida last week and are just about over our jet-lag! I think its safe to say that everyone from the CFS team had a great meeting, in terms of gaining experience in presenting as well as learning about the new trends and techniques. 

TAP Biosystems, a leading supplier of innovative cell culture systems and consumables for life science applications, is delighted to announce that Professor Julie Daniels’ Group at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology will be presenting her latest research on the use of stem cells for corneal regeneration at the world's largest gathering of international eye and vision researchers, ARVO (Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology) meeting on May 6th – 10th in Fort Lauderdale, USA.

Professor Daniels, who has pioneered the clinical use of stem cells for human ocular surface regeneration since 1999, has been invited to present a keynote address, which will take place on Sunday May 6th at 12 noon in the Floridian Ballroom. Her presentation will include a review of the use of biomimetic cornea, as well as her own work and collaboration with TAP Biosystems on using epithelial stem cells to form a biomimetic cornea using the novel RAFT™ (Real Architecture for 3D Tissue™) process for creating collagen based tissue equivalents. In addition to this, senior scientists in the Daniels’ Group will also be presenting five talks and three posters on their research using stem cells to repair the ocular surface.

Professor Daniels, who has been collaborating with TAP Biosystems since 2008, will present data to show that the RAFT process can create corneal tissue which closely mimics the cells’ in vivo environment and supports stem cell growth, offering the potential to improve significantly on current success rates of ocular surface transplant surgery.

Dr Rosemary Drake, CSO at TAP Biosystems stated: “We are delighted that Professor Daniels’ critical research has been given such a substantial platform at this prestigious Ophthalmology Conference because she is one of the founding scientists in the application of stem cells for regeneration of the human cornea. The data from the Daniels’ group will show the RAFT process delivers a realistic collagen-based corneal tissue equivalent, which could in future be more effective than current clinical standards and may potentially really improve treatment for patients suffering from blinding ocular surface damage.” 

About Professor Julie Daniels

Professor Julie Daniels is a leader in translational research on the use of stem cells for repair of the human ocular surface. In 1999 she was the awarded a grant from the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), which recognised her research as a ground breaking method for treating damage to the cornea. From this pioneering start, today Julie is Professor of Regenerative Medicine & Cellular Therapy at the Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, where she heads up a group of 14 tissue engineers and stem cell scientists and commands a research budget of £3 million. Her team’s innovative cellular therapy research has already been utilised to treat 25 patients.

TAP Biosystems has been awarded additional funding from the U.K.’s Technology Strategy Board to support further development of a biomimetic cornea and progress the product into preclinical development and a first-in-man safety trial in two patients.

TAP Biosystems, which supplies cell culture systems and consumables for life science applications, has received further funding from the UK’s Technology Strategy Board.
The unspecified investment will advance the Cambridge UK company’s development of a biomimetic cornea to treat corneal surface disease, into pre-clinical research and a safety trial in two patients.

Prof. Julie Daniels' interview for Insight radio, the radio station of the RNIB, is now available online. Julie talks about the ongoing research projects in the Cells for Sight research programme.