BioLight Enters Agreement with Alexion to Explore Technology To Diagnose Retinal Diseases

Rare Daily Staff

Israeli ocular disease focused biotech BioLight signed a research collaboration agreement with Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, to explore a groundbreaking technology that utilizes natural tears for the potential diagnosis of retinal diseases.

The study, financed by Alexion and BioLight, will evaluate a screening technique that analyzes components of the tear film, an outer eye surface fluid layer. The technology was licensed from Harvard University and will be utilized to analyze tear samples by one of the inventors, Yifat Merbl, of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

The study will be conducted at the Tel Aviv Medical Center and led by Anat Loewenstein, chair of the Ophthalmology department.

“Retinal disease affects the vision of hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Early detection and treatment in the preliminary stages of retinal eye disease can prevent vision loss for a significant number of people,” said Yaacov Michlin, CEO BioLight. “Finding an effective and simple tool for diagnosing during the early stages of the disease’s development is a game changer. This is the objective of the experiment and research, endeavoring to detect retinal disease through human tear sampling.”

Photo: Yaacov Michlin, CEO BioLight