New steroid-based eye drops clear up cataracts

Cataracts cause vision problems and blindness in tens of millions of people worldwide. So far, the only treatment is surgery. Now, new research led by opthalmogologists and engineers at UC San Diego shows a promising alternative treatment using eye drops made from a naturally occurring steroid in the human body.

Cataracts form when proteins in the eye lens, called crystallins, become malformed and clump together, clouding vision. The crystallin proteins malform either from aging, environmental factors, or genetic mutations. In this study, researchers identified a root cause for cataract formation and demonstrated a new potential remedy that doesn’t bring patients under the knife.

The team, led by Kang Zhang, a professor in the Department of Opthalmology and affiliated with the Department of NanoEngineering at UC San Diego, came up with the key ingredient for the eye drops after genetically screening children from two related families with an inherited form of cataracts. The studies revealed that these children share a genetic mutation that shuts down the production of lanosterol, a steroid that’s normally present in cataract-free eyes. With this finding, the team investigated whether lanosterol helps to prevent or clear up cataracts.

The researchers tested lanosterol on dogs with cataracts, first with an eye injection of lanosterol-loaded nanoparticles, followed by daily treatment with lanosterol eye drops. Over the course of six weeks, they observed that the cataracts in the dogs had decreased in size. The lanosterol eye drops also reduced cataracts in human lens cells and rabbit lenses, which were both grown in Petri dishes.

Dog eye lens with cataracts before lanosterol treatment (left) and after lanosterol treatment (right). Photos courtesy of Zhao et al./Nature.

NanoEngineering professor Liangfang Zhang, a co-corresponding author on the study who worked on developing the lanosterol-loaded nanoparticles, said that the researchers are aiming to move this study to clinical trials.

The findings were published in the July 30 issue of Nature.

Engineering is the Future of Health Care. Attend Research Expo at UC San Diego on April 17.

Engineering and computational science are the future of health care. This future includes genomics and the full roster of related “omics” fields, of course. UC San Diego, the Torrey Pines Mesa, and San Diego are taking a leadership role in developing ever-deeper connections between engineering, computing, medicine and health care that are aimed at improving human health. 


UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering graduate students, for example, are working on hundreds of different projects aimed at accelerating health care innovation through engineering applications. Research Expo on April 17 at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is a great opportunity to meet many of these students and learn about their projects—in person and all in one afternoon.

At Research Expo 2013, (L-R) Roy Levkowitz of Aethlon Medical and a UC San Diego bioengineering alumnus; and Raj Krishnan, Co-Founder and CEO of Biological Dynamics, came back to campus to serve as poster judges. Pictured here with their former PhD advisor, UC San Diego Bioengineering and NanoEngineernig professor Michael Heller.

More than 50 of the 200 posters that engineering graduate students will present at Research Expo are tagged as relevant for the “Life Sciences / Medical Devices & Instruments” industries. And those are just the posters the students tagged themselves. Probably just as exciting are the emerging technologies that COULD be leveraged for future health care / life sciences applications.

For example, at Research Expo 2011, electrical engineering Ph.D. graduate student Chirag Patel (who has since graduated and now works at Qualcomm) received some unexpected feedback on his work on RF MEMS metal-contact switches, work that won him the grand prize of the poster session. During the final round of judging, the faculty judge from bioengineering asked Patel what would happen if he put his switch in water.

“I thought about it, and I answered the question; but then I asked him why would you want to do that, and he said, ‘Well, that would be really useful for us in bioengineering,’” explained Patel, who was surprised that bioengineers would be interested in his work.

We would want to hire you tomorrow if this thing worked in water, the bioengineer said.

What are the will-it-work-in-water questions of 2014? And what exciting advances might that these questions lead to? Find out for yourself. Register for Research Expo, which is Thursday April 17 from 2 to 6 PM at UC San Diego.

In addition to the posters session, Research Expo includes six fast-paced faculty talks and a networking reception.

Bioengineering professor Karen Christman’s talk: “Injectable Biomaterials for Treating Cardiovascular Disease.”

Electrical engineering professor Truong Nguyen’s talk: “3D Model & Video Processing in Health Care Applications”

* Research Expo admission is $100. Register here.

* Half-price for UC San Diego alumni.
* Jacobs School of Engineering Corporate Affiliates Program members receive 2-for-1 admission.

Research Expo 2014 Posters 

Below are just a few of the official “Life Sciences / Medical Devices & Instruments” posters at Research Expo. Have a look at the entire list of poster titles here. When you register for Research Expo, you get access to the full abstracts of each poster.

1. STORED BLOOD QUALITY DIAGNOSTIC DEVICE
Student: Shawn Raymond Mailo 
Professor: Pedro J. Cabrales Arevalo
Industry Application Areas: Life Sciences/Medical Devices & Instruments

4. SILICA NANOPARTICLES FOR ENZYME DELIVERY IN CANCER TREATMENT
Student: Ya-San Yeh 
Professor: Sadik C. Esener
Industry Application Areas: Life Sciences/Medical Devices & Instruments

6. RAPID PROTEASE DETECTION DIRECTLY IN WHOLE BLOOD
Student : Augusta Esmeralda Modestino
Professor: Michael Heller
Industry Application Areas: Life Sciences/Medical Devices & Instruments

13. BIOMATERIAL ASSISTED BONE TISSUE REPAIR
Students: Heemin Kang | Cai Wen | Yu-Ru V. Shih | Yongsung Hwang 
Professor: Shyni Varghese
Industry Application Areas: Life Sciences/Medical Devices & Instruments | Materials

67. REVOLUTIONIZING LAPAROSCOPY WITH GLASSES-FREE MULTIVIEW 3D
Student: Jason Juang 
Professor: Truong Nguyen
Industry Application Areas: Life Sciences/Medical Devices & Instruments

139. INTRAOCULAR PRESSURE SENSOR
Student: Alex Minh Giang Phan
Professor: Frank E. Talke
Industry Application Areas: Life Sciences/Medical Devices & Instruments

The Jacobs School of Engineering

With more than 1,700 engineering graduate students, 200+ engineering professors and $158M is engineering research expenditures, the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is teeming with cutting-edge research projects and entrepreneurial engineers looking to transfer their advances to society in order to solve problems, advance technology and make the world a better place.

The Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UC San Diego and the Department of Bioengineering at UC San Diego are key player in this process. (Bioengineering Day at UC San Diego is Saturday April 12.)

Free Student Tickets / “What’s Past is Prologue: Creating the Life Sciences Industry in San Diego”

UC San Diego students who are interested in attending “What’s Past is Prologue:  Creating the Life Sciences Industry in San Diego” just might get free tickets. Keep reading to find out more about the event. For info on getting a hold of free tickets, contact Andy Newsham at anewsham@ucsd.edu

San Diego’s Biotech Industry Legends to Discuss Insights into Past & Future Nov. 7

Three legendary San Diego venture capitalists will discuss past lessons learned and thoughts about the future of local commercial biotech ventures during the first in a series of planned “conversations” Nov. 7 in Calit2’s Atkinson Hall at UC San Diego. The event is being billed as the first of its kind in San Diego.

“What’s Past is Prologue:  Creating the Life Sciences Industry in San Diego” is sponsored by the Life Sciences Foundation and the UC San Diego Library, and is co-sponsored by Connect and Sughrue, with community partners Biocom and San Diego Venture Group.  The panelists, who will offer their insights into the past and future of San Diego biotech, will include Jim Blair of Domain Associates, Kevin Kinsella of Avalon Ventures, and Tim Wollaeger of Sanderling Partners. Ivor Royston of Forward Ventures will serve as moderator. The 4 p.m. discussion will be followed by a reception at 5 p.m.

Blair, Kinsella and Wollaeger helped to create the San Diego life sciences industry more than 30 years ago, and remain active today. Creating such high profile companies as Dura Pharmaceuticals, Vertex and Pyxis, they will discuss the birth of San Diego’s life sciences cluster, current conditions, and their vision for the future.

Moderator Ivor Royston, M.D., is a founding managing partner of Forward Ventures. Dr. Royston has been involved in the biotechnology industry in San Diego from its inception in 1978 with the founding of Hybritech, Inc., later acquired by Eli Lilly, and with the founding of Idec Pharmaceuticals in 1986, which later merged with Biogen.

Jim Blair has been a partner of Domain Associates since its founding in 1985. Dr. Blair has over 40 years’ experience with venture and emerging growth companies. He has been involved in the creation and successful development at the board level of over 40 life sciences ventures, including Amgen, Aurora Biosciences, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Applied Biosystems, Dura Pharmaceuticals, GeneOhm Sciences, Molecular Dynamics, NuVasive, Pharmion and Volcano.

Kevin Kinsella founded Avalon Ventures in 1983. He has specialized in the formation, financing and/or development of more than 100 early-stage companies. Kinsella was the founding chairman of Athena Neurosciences, Aurora Biosciences Corp., Landmark Graphics, NeoRx, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Synaptics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, X-Ceptor and Sequana Therapeutics.

Timothy Wollaeger has more than 30 years’ experience in the medical products and biotechnology fields in both corporate management and venture capital. Wollaeger joined Sanderling Ventures as a managing director in 2002, and opened the firm’s San Diego office. He founded Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Biosite, Columbia Hospital, Digirad Pyxis, Senomix, Sotera Wireless and Vical.

Over the last 20 years, San Diego has developed to become one of largest and most dense biotechnology hubs in the nation.  Regional clusters in telecommunications, information and software technology are also continuing to take grow and take shape. To increase scholarly and public understanding of San Diego’s culture of innovation, the UC San Diego Library has launched the San Diego Technology Archive (SDTA), an online, interactive archive documenting the history, development, and growth of the companies and entrepreneurial entities that make up San Diego’s technology clusters.  The archive focuses on San Diego’s life sciences and information technology clusters. For more information on the SDTA: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/sdta/

Tickets for the Nov. 7 event are $25. For more information and to register, please visit: lifesciencesfoundation.org/sandiego

The Life Sciences Foundation is dedicated to capturing the history, preserving the heritage, and sharing the stories of biotechnology. The foundation collects and organizes historical information to educate and inspire future innovators, to engage the general public, and to provide lay audiences with an understanding of life sciences and biotechnology.

The UC San Diego Library, ranked among the nation’s top public academic research libraries, provides access to more than 7 million digital and print volumes, journals, and multimedia materials to meet the knowledge and information needs of faculty, students, and members of the public.  For more information: http://libraries.ucsd.edu/