Thomas Corydon from the Department of Biomedicine and Toke Bek from the Department of Clinical Medicine are working together on gene therapy to treat diseases that affect the retina of the eye. This includes the eye disease age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is the biggest cause of loss of vision in the older population over 60.

The two professors, who research gene therapies to treat eye diseases, aim to treat patients with AMD with a gene that stimulates retinal cells to heal themselves. And now, the Novo Nordisk Foundation supports the project with a Tandem Programme grant of DKK 10 million.

In current treatment, the chronic nature of the disease requires repeated injections with an angiostatic drug such as Eylea. This is a burden on both patients and the healthcare system, and there is an accumulated risk of complications.

"We want to significantly improve the treatment of patients with AMD. The current therapy does not always have the desired effect and often requires repeated treatments. Our idea is to develop combination therapy to target one or several pathways leading to AMD, chasing long-lasting cures rather than short-term disease alleviation. Our research project marks a paradigm shift in the development of drugs to treat AMD," says Thomas Corydon.

Among other things, the grant will finance salaries, PhD scholarships and costs of the project's extensive laboratory tests.

Contact

Professor and Deputy Head of Department Thomas Corydon
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Telephone: +45 28 99 21 79
Email: corydon@biomed.au.dk

Clinical Professor and Chair & Consultant Toke Bek
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Ophthalmology
Telephone: +45 78 45 46 44
Email: toke.bek@clin.au.dk