Development of models to accelerate design of injectable devices for sustained drug delivery to the eye - Dr by Victoria Kearns (Dept of EVS, University of Liverpool)

26 August  202014:00 Wednesday 26th August 2020 (via Zoom)

Title: Development of models to accelerate design of injectable devices for sustained drug delivery to the eye

Abstract:

Delivery of drugs to the eye is a key treatment for a number of sight-threatening diseases. For diseases of the back of the eye, such as diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration, the most effective route for drug delivery to the vitreous cavity is by injection into the eye, which has several drawbacks. Implantable devices that can achieve controlled, sustained drug release could provide an improved approach to drug treatment in the posterior segment of the eye. We have been developing novel, biomaterial-based technology to meet this unmet clinical need. The outer blood-retinal barrier (OBRB) is important in controlling drug clearance from the posterior segment of the eye. Complementary in vitro and computational models of this tissue could provide a fast, inexpensive method of understanding release profiles of drug delivery devices. In this talk, I will give an overview of the clinical problems and our attempts to solve them, and discuss our work on development of a computational model to evaluate drug release from a silicone oil-based delivery system and validation of this model using in vitro tools.