INSIGHT and insitro collaboration. This week, machine learning-enabled drug discovery and development company, insitro, announced a new partnership with Moorfield Eye Hospital’s INSIGHT Health Data Research Hub. The world’s largest ophthalmic imaging bioresource, INSIGHT contains approximately 35 million eye images, which insitro hopes to utilize in order to develop a novel AI foundation model that can work towards the genetic discovery of ocular biomarkers, as well as identifying novel therapeutic targets for neurodegenerative diseases and related conditions. Link
Stargardt disease developments. Barcelona-based company SpliceBio last week announced its first patient dose in the phase I/II ASTRA study of SB-007, a dual adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector developed for the treatment of Stargardt disease. Running in tandem with the ASTRA study, the company is actively enrolling Stargardt disease patients in its POLARIS trial, an observational study aimed at evaluating disease progression in Stargardt Disease Type 1. Link
Visual screening for stroke survivors. Researchers from the University of Oxford and Durham University, UK, have developed a new standardized tool designed to assess visual perception difficulties in stroke survivors. The Oxford Visual Perception Screen (OxVPS) is a 15-minute, paper-based test consisting of 10 tasks evaluating object recognition, face perception, reading, and visuospatial processing. By identifying perceptual impairments efficiently and rapidly, OxVPS has the potential to improve early detection and rehabilitation strategies in stroke care. Link
f-ORG(ing) ahead. A recent PNAS study has introduced photopic flicker optoretinography (f-ORG) as a new method to measure tiny light-induced changes in photoreceptors using high-speed imaging. The researchers – based at the International Centre for Translational Eye Research in Warsaw, Poland – found that photoreceptor outer segments expand and contract in response to flickering light, with these changes driven by the protein phosphodiesterase 6 (PDE6) during phototransduction. By linking these nanometer-scale structural changes to molecular events, f-ORG could become a valuable non-invasive tool for diagnosing and monitoring retinal diseases. Link
