Project description
Nitinol implants bolster the fight against progressive eye disease
The cornea is the eye’s outermost lens, sort of a window onto the world that controls and focuses the light entering the eye by bending or refracting it. It is responsible for about 65-75 % of the eye’s total focusing power, so a change in the shape of the cornea has important impact on a person’s ability to see clearly. Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease resulting in a bulging, cone-shaped cornea and significant refractive error that is difficult to treat with ocular surgery or corneal transplantation. The EU-funded HUMANeye project pulls together two SMEs and two leading European ophthalmic care centres to bring a revolutionary treatment to market. The team’s implantable dome-shaped corneal net made from medical-grade nitinol not only corrects the refractive error, it stops disease progression. With EU support, scientists are focusing on a winner.
Objective
The global costs from visual refractive errors will reach some 1.2 trillion in 2019. This type of disability is on the increase and it is predicted that it will affect 10% of the World population by 2050. Pathological corneal shape deformations (PCSD) are a common cause of severe refractive error that tend to occur in young adults, considerably reducing both their quality of life and work productivity. Current treatment options are severely limited. The compromised cornea cannot withstand aggressive reductive laser surgery. Corneal transplantation gives highly unpredictable results, necessitating multiple operations that lead to spiraling treatment costs of over 14k per patient.
HUMANEYE is a breakthrough dome-shaped corneal net fashioned in medical-grade titanium. Implanted deep within the cornea, it potently corrects refractive error and halts disease progression in PCSD. It uniquely matches the natural architecture of tissue layers throughout the entire tissue, leading to simple reproducible implantation, 70% higher success rates and 66% stronger refractive correction than current ring-shaped implants on the market today.
The HUMANeye project unites two hi-tech SMEs, to manufacture the technology and push it to market, with two leading European ophthalmic care centres to prove its worth in the clinic. From HUMANEYE launch in 2023 until 2027, our SME partners will together generate 103.6m in cumulative revenues and 54.9m in profits. Rollout with an established commercial license partner will generate 21 internal and 48 external jobs in our value chain. 938k successfully operations will help 295k patients to better employment and save 20.1bn in direct public healthcare and indirect productivity costs.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine surgery
- social sciences economics and business economics production economics productivity
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine ophthalmology
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine transplantation
- medical and health sciences medical biotechnology implants
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
H2020-EC - Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.3. - PRIORITY 'Societal challenges
See all projects funded under this programme -
H2020-EU.2.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
IA - Innovation action
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-EIC-FTI-2018-2020
See all projects funded under this callCoordinator
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
08024 Barcelona
Spain
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.