Retinal Imaging Project Receives a 940K€ Grant From France’s National Research Agency

Orsay, France – January 14, 2010: Following on the success of the INOVEO project, which unveiled the world’s first compact Adaptive Optics Flood Illumination Fundus Camera (AO FIFC) in 2008, the iPhot

project has received a 940K€ (approximately $US1.35M) grant from France’s National Research Agency (ANR) TecSan program. iPhot is a collaborative project for continuing the development of Imagine Eyes’ rtx1 Adaptive Optics Retinal Camera. iPhot will unite the unique industrial knowhow of Imagine Eyes and Onera with four academic partners including the Quinze-Vingts hospital (France’s National Institute for Ophthalmology), the INSERM (France’s National Institute for Health and Medical Research), Telecom ParisTech and L2TI.

“The ultimate goal of the iPhot project is to optimize the process of adaptive-optics enabled retinal imaging in order to obtain morphological, quantitative and longitudinal information at the level of single photoreceptor cells in humans” notes Imagine Eyes’ CEO Nicolas Chateau. Adding “Clinical investigations related to this particular project will be focused on early detection of photoreceptor damage in cases of genetically or phenotypically defined inheritable

retinal dystrophies. As the project and its technology advances, we plan to partner with additional clinical investigation sites to perform research on the healthy retina as well as other retinal diseases.”

“Unfortunately, most cases retinal of disease are diagnosed only once the patient has suffered significant, irreparable vision loss” says Pr. Michel Paques, iPhot’s Project Coordinator, from the Quinze-Vingts hospital. “Functional testing detects visual impairment only once a significant proportion of cells have degenerated. More importantly, functional defects, and the associated morphological changes at the level of outer segments, can precede cell loss. The current imaging technologies that are used to diagnose and monitor the effectiveness of treatment lack the cellular level resolution needed to observe the retinal microstructures causing the visual dysfunction. The comprehensive analysis of the relationship between structural and functional parameters will guide both prognostic assessment and therapeutic decision making in affected patients. It should equally provide clues to discriminate and quantify irreversible versus reversible lesions.”

In addition to the funding received through the ANR, each of the partners will contribute significant resources to ensure the project’s success. Over the course of the 2-year project, the iPhot team will concentrate on improving the prototype’s design and overall performances while establishing an image bank that will facilitate comparative analysis of healthy versus pathologically affected retinal microstructures.

(Images obtained with Imagine Eyes’ adaptive-optics retinal camera.)

Previous News:

Imagine Eyes Launches mirao 52-e For Retinal Imaging and Vision Science Applications, Sept 2008.

About Imagine Eyes:

Imagine Eyes is an ophthalmic medical device company that applies its unique expertise in ocular wavefront metrology and adaptive optics to focus on the needs for ophthalmic diagnostic devices that cannot effectively be addressed by other means.
The company, founded in 2003 by leading scientists in the fields of adaptive optics and eye research, maintains its position as a technical leader in this domain through its innovative research and development program, wide array of patents and acclaimed product line.

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