5 projects, 23 months

St. John’s researchers are now in a battlefield all their own.

The hospital’s Medical Research Institute was awarded $4.8 million from the U.S. Department of Defense, and the clock is ticking for the team to develop products to treat soldiers suffering from eye wounds in combat. The institute and its partners have 23 months left to present their
laboratory findings on five projects.

Dr. Shachar Tauber leads the research team, which plans to develop four products by September 2012, and to complete a study that can aid in the development of new drug treatments. The two-year grant was awarded by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center.

While nearly 40 percent of war injuries are eye injuries, medics administer to life-threatening injuries first, said Tauber, St. John’s medical director of corneal and ophthalmic research and principal investigator of the corneal wound repair program. Many wounded soldiers have more than one injury, he noted, and the products his team is developing would allow a medic to essentially put something onto the eye and get out of the way.

Already, amniotic membranes – a collection of proteins formed into the shape of a contact lens and applied to the eye to help speed healing – are beginning to be used for eye injuries in the Ozarks, said Keela Davis, technical research director at St. John’s Medical Research Institute. Because amniotic membranes must be kept at temperatures between 36 degrees and 46 degrees Fahrenheit, military medics who are often without power for days at a time are unable to use the technology on the battlefield.

The team is developing a passive thermal device, which will be self-powered and provide medics with the means to keep amniotic membranes at the necessary temperatures for up to three days. The thermal device is the first product expected to be completed, Davis said, adding that the goal is to present a finished product to the military in 18 months.

The thermal device also would serve as a carrier for three other products in development under the Defense grant, said Pete Miles, administrative director at St. John’s Medical Research Institute. One is a corneal adhesive, which will have drug delivery capabilities that can be used instead of stitches. Stitches can cause scarring on the cornea, which reduces vision clarity, Davis said, noting the adhesive would reduce scarring and improve outcomes.

Partnering on the adhesive project is New Haven, Conn.-based Connecticut Analytical Corp., which will develop the glue, with drug delivery analysis done by St. John’s Medical Research Institute. The Center for Biomedical and Life Sciences at Missouri State University will conduct biological testing on the product, Davis said, with testing to ensure its safe use on humans to follow the 24-month deadline.

Also expected to take a full 24 months to develop through the biological testing phase are the construction of two lenses – similar to contact lenses but built with electrospun nanofibers that will allow scientists to build time-release medications into the lens.

“It’s a nanofiber. It’s about 50 to 100 times smaller in diameter compared to an average human hair,” said Andrew Tangonan, chemist at St. John’s Medical Research Institute. “So you can imagine if you have a lot of that … we can choose those fibers and we can put drugs inside of them or mix it with the fiber, so it opens a lot of potential for extended user drugs.”

One lens, a first aid lens, is being built so that it can be applied on the battlefield to stabilize the eye, providing drug delivery for between one and three days, which would allow time for a soldier to reach a center for treatment. The other, a healing lens, will be capable of providing a drug delivery system for a 14- to 30-day timeframe.

“Instead of stabilizing the injury to allow time to get to treatment, this would be used after treatment to help modulate the wound’s healing process,” Davis said.

The lenses will be developed simultaneously, with St. John’s working on the drug delivery analysis and development of the lenses, and CBLS conducting biological testing.

One research project funded by the grant won’t include the development of a physical product, but it will allow doctors to develop drugs and treatments for eye injuries in the future. The tear proteomics research will evaluate the proteins in the tears of soldiers undergoing photorefractive keratectomy surgery, a procedure that resembles a controlled wound injury, Davis said.

“We study the way the eye responds to inflammation and injuries and can design, in a custom way, new drugs,” Tauber said.

The technology under development also can be applicable to treating patients in Springfield, said Tauber, noting the passive thermal device also could carry cornea transplants. Healing lenses can be used to curtail infections after cataract surgeries, for example, by providing a way for patients to stay compliant with medicines.[[In-content Ad]]