AstraZeneca and UCL join forces in sight-related stem cell medicine

AstraZeneca and UCL have today entered into a collaboration to develop regenerative medicines for diabetic retinopathy (DR). DR is now the most common cause of vision impairment among people of working age in Western society. The majority of patients with type 1 diabetes will develop retinopathy and about 20?30% will become blind. Moreover, a large number of patients with type 2 diabetes will develop retinopathy as their underlying disease progresses. With the global epidemic of type 2 diabetes, this predicament is set to worsen as over 438 million people are projected to suffer from diabetes and its complications by 2030. Under the terms of the three-year agreement, AstraZeneca and scientists at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology will collaborate to identify new therapeutic tools that can modulate the regenerative capacity of stem cells. Dr Marcus Fruttiger of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology is leading the project.