We create a global eye health ecosystem

Professors, scientists, senior researchers, PhD students, Post-docs, and technicians working in laboratories in Poland, the United Kingdom, and the US collaborate to achieve our common goal: improve the ocular health of humanity. Our ecosystem is expanding, positively impacting the quantity and quality of scientific knowledge about eye functioning and structure, leading to the prevention and treatment of sight diseases, and the development of new eye therapies and precision ocular medicine.

Strategic Partner Scientific Partners Industrial Collaboration Funding Agencies

University College London

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ioo/

ICTER’s strategic foreign partner is the Institute of Ophthalmology within the Faculty of Brain Sciences of University College London, in the United Kingdom.

About UCL

Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. It is among the world’s top universities, as reflected by performance in a range of international rankings and tables. UCL currently has almost 29,000 students from 150 countries and in the region of 10,000 employees.
Source, and further information: www.ucl.ac.uk.

About UCL Institute of Ophthalmology

UCL Institute of Ophthalmology is one of the foremost eye and vision research institutes in the world. It operates at the cutting edge of translational research, delivering new therapies, diagnostic tools and preventive measures to patients suffering from visual impairment or blinding conditions. The Institute conducts research and post-graduate teaching in the area of ophthalmology (the anatomy, physiology, and diseases of the eye). The UCL-IoO is able to bring its science to life through a partnership with Moorfields Eye Hospital in UK government-sponsored NIHR- Biomedical Research Centre, elaborating its ability to undertake experimental medicine studies, early phase trials and exploit the well-curated and large population base of patients with inherited eye disease and common ophthalmic disorders. The combination of the Institute’s research resource with Moorfields Eye Hospital, which has the largest ophthalmic patient population in the western world, opens the way for further advances in vision research. Close collaboration with other academic partners and with industry extends its impact. The Institute has been named as the best place to study ophthalmology in the 2017 Centre for World University Rankings (CWUR).
Source, and further information: www.ucl.ac.uk/ioo.

University of California, Irvine

https://www.uci.edu/

ICTER’s scientific international partner is the University of California, Irvine (UCI). We closely collaborate with the UCI School of Medicine, especially with the Center for Translational Vision Research at the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute.

About the UCI

Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 37,000 students and offers 222 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. Source: https://www.uci.edu/.

About the Center for Translational Vision Research

The Center for Translational Vision Research serves as an international leader in advancing research and bolstering support of investigators pursuing basic and translational sciences relevant to vision. It brings together exceptional scientific expertise from within the University, the School of Medicine and other schools, and complementary research programs to advance collaborations that focus on fundamental discoveries in vision research with translational potential. This is an exciting time for the Center as it embarks on a very ambitious and exciting agenda that will foster vision research at the University of California, Irvine. The current state of vision research makes it clear that an integrated focus combining structural biology, genetics, biochemistry, and pharmacology, with basic functional biological research will create synergies resulting in a far stronger program than each area of research could achieve alone. With appropriate funding and infrastructure, and a laser focus on key areas with aligned missions, the employees believe this premier Center will flourish as one of the leading vision research organizations in the U.S. and be competitive world-wide. Together with clinical trials, the researchers at the Center remain extremely enthusiastic about leading this innovative programmatic endeavor in partnership with The University California system.

Approach

The Center for Translational Vision Research is devoted to maximizing the opportunities for basic sciences, particularly the chemistry and biology of vision, to lay the foundation for understanding principles that govern human visual perception. Activities of the Center reside at the intersection of advances in chemistry, physics, optics, structural biology, and innovative genomics/diagnostics. Integrating these disciplines enables the Center not only to optimize these sub-disciplines in relation to vision research, but also to serve as a model of exploration in other important areas of modern biochemistry and disease-oriented medicine. Ultimately, advances in basic vision research and pharmacology will lead to innovative therapies for millions robbed of their sight or progressing toward blindness.

Source, and more information: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/ctvr/.

Mode-Locked Technology

http://mode-locked.com/

Mode-Locked Technology is a spin-off company from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (Wroclaw, Poland) founded in 2020 by Dr. Jarosław Sotor and Dr. Grzegorz Soboń. Their mission is to commercialize novel, cutting-edge laser-based technologies. Product capabilities include femtosecond oscillators (Erbium, Thulium), broadband and tunable sources (1000 – 2200 nm), mid-infrared sources (3 µm, 8 µm), high-power femtosecond lasers, fiber amplifiers and customized laser systems.

Mode-locked Technology supplies bespoke pulsed lasers for our two-photon human experiments.

FLUENCE

https://fluence.technology/pl/

Founded in 2016, Fluence Sp. z o.o. is a leading manufacturer of femtosecond fiber laser solutions. The company offers robust and stable industrial-grade femtosecond lasers that are immune to misalignment and feature a novel all-fiber oscillator for a robust, reliable package. Fluence is devoted to providing the highest quality standards and product reliability, offering a product lifetime that extends well over the warranty period.

Fluence collaborates with ICTER supplying pulsed lasers for our two-photon research.

POLGENIX

http://www.polgenixinc.com/

Established in 2006, Polgenix, Inc., is a small biotech company, whose aims encompass two areas: 1. Drug discovery targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) to treat common blinding diseases, 2. Innovative high-resolution retinal imaging for ophthalmic drug discovery.

Polgenix is cooperating with ICTER on the front of evaluating novel eye diagnostic methods.

Praevium Research

https://www.praevium.com/

Praevium Research was founded in 2001, with the mission of commercializing high functionality, radically miniaturized opto-electronic devices for a variety of system applications. The company’s core competencies are in the design and fabrication of semiconductor lasers, detectors, and photonic integrated circuits, and their application in medicine, agriculture, and communications. The Praevium team works with collaborators to develop new photonic devices customized to specific applications. Previous collaborations with university research groups have resulted in novel devices for spectroscopy, OCT and machine vision.

Praevium Research works with ICTER on testing and characterization of OCT light sources.

OPTOPOL Technology

www.optopol.com

Optopol Technology sp. z o.o. is a leading brand in the Polish ophthalmology devices market. Developed the world’s first Spectral Domain OCT device, SOCT Copernicus from the prototype provided by the scientists prof. Maciej Wojtkowski and prof. Andrzej Kowalczyk of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. Optopol consistently provides new devices and solutions for the market. Another world’s first, this time exceeding 130.000 A-scans per second in a standard device, is their REVO NX 130.

Optopol collaborates with ICTER in evaluation and cross-checking of ICTER’s human measurements data.

OCULOMEDICA

http://oculomedica.pl/

An ophthalmology clinic, performing intraocular surgeries, all kinds of laser treatment, anti-VEGF and glaucoma therapy, innovative clinical trials and other medical procedures. Provides full-featured on-board diagnostics.

Oculomedica cooperates with ICTER in organizing human volunteer testing sessions and ICTER’s novel eye imaging device evaluation.