| Information |
Type of Grant: Competitive funding , Research Contract
Grant code: Ramon y Cajal program, RYC-2016-21125
Awardee Organization: Eduardo Lage, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid
Public Health Relevance Statement:
Project Start Date: January 2018
Project End Date: December 2021
Total Funding: 40,000 €
MEDIC Personnel included in the grant / Role: Dr. Eduardo Lage / PI
Abstract Text: Dr. Lage’ s doctoral research was focused on the design and development of innovative medical imaging systems for Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), X-Ray Tomography (CT), and multimodality scanners implementing combinations of these techniques (i.e. PET/CT). Dr. Lage transferred all of these systems to industry and some of them have been commercialized worldwide by several companies. During his post-doctoral stage, Dr. Lage developed and co-directed two international research projects, both involving several top USA and Spain research institutions. Although these two projects were in different clinical fields, both share a common feature which is the base for any research performed by Dr. Lage –the research is carefully designed and driven to address an unmet clinical need.
The first project, titled “multiplexed PET ,” aims to develop a technology to enable current PET scanners to image more than one biological parameter in a single scan. This breakthrough would make it possible to simultaneously measure interlinked disease processes (e.g. metabolism, hypoxia, or the presence or absence of specific tumor receptors) which is unfeasible with current technology. The integration of this technology into current clinical systems holds the potential to enable new molecular imaging applications including early treatment and response assessment for cancer patients, and even the possibility of objectively tailoring cancer therapy according to the patient’ s unique profile (personalized medicine). Towards this, the project team has demonstrated the technology in preclinical scanners and obtained competitive funding to implement the technology in human scanners.
The objective of Dr. Lage’ s second research line is to develop a low-cost portable device to easily obtain eyeglasses prescriptions in low resource settings. There is a critical need for tools that increase the accessibility of eye care to address the most common cause of vision impairment – uncorrected refractive errors. Due to the global shortage of eye care professionals, it is often difficult, particularly in low resource settings, to obtain accurate prescriptions for eyeglasses that would effectively correct refractive errors and restore good vision.
During this project we created and patented a technology that enables low-cost accurate wavefront aberrometry in a handheld form factor.The device has been clinically validated in more than 1200 patients around the world and was demonstrated to have excellent performance for measuring refractive errors. As a result of this project Dr. Lage cofounded PlenOptika, Inc and secured funding for thedevelopment and commercialization this technology.
Apart from the 2 previous research lines, Dr. Lage’ s current research is focused on the development of a new wearable vision simulation device that allows the patient, prior to implantation, to naturally see how intra-ocular lenses (including multifocal lenses) will affect their vision. This technology will enable, for the first time, patients to select the lenses which better fit their perception of the reality before cataract or presbyopia surgery, and thus opens up new market opportunities for mutlifocal intra-ocular lenses. As a result Dr. Lage has cofounded the company 2Eyes Vision SL in partnership with VioBio Lab (CSIC). |
