In our ageing society ocular diseases are an increasing problem. More and more people beyond the age of 65 lose their eyesight and thus control over their lives, independence and mobility. On a global scale, 285 million people have some form of vision-impairing eye disease at this age imposing a tremendous personal and economic burden for patients and society. There is a global need for bringing a new generation of independent and creative researchers and business professionals to the forefront of ocular drug research. The OcuTher-project is training 15 highly selected PhD students to become pioneering researchers, able to bring ground-breaking innovations from bench to bedside. The OcuTher-project, funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Marie Curie grant, aims to radically reform the training of researchers by changing from one-sided training, to a broad, highly multidisciplinary and intersectoral training, also involving interaction with industry and patient organisation. OcuTher provides a new systematic approach to develop compounds and drug delivery systems for the treatment of retinal diseases.

Preclinical stage showing proof-of-concept in the cells and preclinical in vivo experiments.

The results have been reproduced.