本帖最后由 choi 于 5-15-2019 14:10 编辑
(6) Drake Bennett, They're Coming for Your Eyeballs.
https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2019-gore-artificial-cornea/
Quoe:
"In October of that year [1969], the Gore family made its own giant leap. Bill and Vieve's [Vieve is short of female given name Genevieve] eldest son, Bob, a chemical engineer and the company's head of research, set out to see whether PTFE could be stretched to cover more surface area, making it more cost-effective. In a lab at the company's plant in Newark, Del, he heated rods of the cloudy polymer and pulled carefully at each end. Time after time, the fluorocarbon barely stretched before starting to break. Finally, near the end of another fruitless day, he took a sample from the oven and winged his arms back in a frustrated jerk. To his shock, the material didn't snap. It stretched, and in a way that seemed to defy physics. Hoping for a 50 percent extension, he'd achieved something closer to 1,000 percent. And the PTFE didn't stretch the way stretchy things normally do, thinning out as it elongated. It telescoped, retaining its thickness. The expansion was internal: Folded molecular chains were yanked straight, opening up billions of microscopic spaces throughout. It was as though Bob had taken a piece of string cheese and, with a tug, transformed it into a rope of Swiss [cheese, which has a lot of holes in it] 10 times as long.
"The cornea implant actually dates to 2004, when [chemical engineer named Anuraag] Singh encountered a colleague, Gopalan Balaji, in the lunch line at a company event. Both are from India, a country plagued, like much of the developing world, by a lack of eye banks. Corneal blindness seemed to them like something Gore could and should tackle: The few artificial corneas on the market are difficult to implant and prone to complications.
Note:
(a)
(i) summary underneath the title in print: WL Gore, one of the world's most innovative companies, is hunting for new product line -- and reinventing itself in the process.
(ii) This is the first of the three feature reports.
(iii) In print, the title is printed on a photo, whose caption reads: A Gore cornea lens held over a Gore-Tex jacket
(iv) Print and the online version are identical.
(b) Before you read text, read this note first, because this report does not say why Gore's man-made cornea is better than those on the market. It turns out that Gore's cornea is not even in a clinical trial (on humans). It may takes years, if at all, for it to reach market. Then again, Americans (who pays and are willing to pay, a lot for healthcare, do not suffer from diseases affecting the cornea, which ravages Third World, which has little to pay.
(c) Providing Real Hope with Artificial Corneas. Wilmer Cornea Concepts, 2018, at page 2
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/ ... nea-concepts-18.pdf
("CORNEAL TRANSPLANTS are among the most successful organ transplantation procedures. This is wonderful news for people who live in places [SUCH AS us] where donor corneas are plentiful and for patients who are good candidates for them. * * * In the U.S. alone, people in this situation—who need corneal transplants but are not good candidates [What kinds of patients are they? This article did not explain] —number 8,000 a year. Worldwide, that number reaches several million. In addition, donor corneal transplantation requires eye banking, which is expensive and not feasible in many developing countries. * * * Currently, two products on the market referred to as 'artificial corneas' exist, but they each require a human donor cornea as a carrier material for a prosthesis. Without the human donor cornea attached to the prosthesis as a 'carrier,' the surgeon would not be able to suture the prosthesis into the eye because it is made of plastic. The partnership between Akpek and WL Gore, however, has yielded an entirely artificial device, with no donor cornea needed. * * * Though she cannot disclose the material, she can say that it is a derivative of Teflon. 'It's inert material—like silicone—so the body won't reject it. And you don't have to immunosuppress the person,' says Akpek. * * * She estimates that her team could launch human clinical trials in about two years")
(i)
(A) This is "A Publication of the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine."
(B) "Founded in 1925 as the nation's first university eye clinic," -- quoting Institute's website -- "Ophthalmologist William Holland Wilmer opened the Wilmer Eye Institute in 1925." en.wikipedia.org for Johns Hopkins Hospital.
(C) The logo of Wilmer Eye Institute incorporates Institute's dome.
https://www.bostonsight.org/PROS ... Institute-Baltimore
(ii) transplantation with human corneas
(A) Abud TB et al, Systemic Immunomodulatory Strategies in High-risk Corneal Transplantation. Journal of Ophthalmic & Vision Research, 12: 81 (2017)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5340067/
Please red Introduction, including this: "Due to corneal immune privilege [because normally cornea receives no blood supply and has no white blood cell (or any cell at all) infiltration], corneal transplantation has been associated with high success rates, including 90% survival after 1 year and 55% after 15 years when performed in avascular and non-inflamed host beds. * * * Corneal transplantation in a non-vascularized and non-inflamed host bed, which is termed as low-risk (LR) corneal graft, does not require any systemic immunosuppression or Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) tissue matching")
(B) overall, including high-risk patients:
Borderie VM et al, Predicted Long-Term Outcome of Corneal Transplantation. Ophthalmology, 116: 2354 (2009)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19815285
("The observed 5- and 10-year graft survival estimates were, respectively, 74% and 64%. * * * Overall, the predicted graft survival estimate [by extrapolation] was 27% at 20 years and 2% at 30 years")
(C) Cornea Transplant. Mayo Clinic, May 17, 2018,
https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests ... /about/pac-20385285
the last section:
"Vision correction after surgery[sectional heading]
"Your vision may initially be worse than before your surgery as your eye adjusts to the new cornea. It may take several months for your vision to improve.
"Once the outer layer of your cornea has healed — several weeks to several months after surgery — your eye doctor will work to make adjustments that can improve your vision, such as:
• Correcting unevenness in your cornea (astigmatism). The stitches that hold the donor cornea in place on your eye may cause dips and bumps in your cornea, making your vision blurry in spots. Your doctor may correct some of this by releasing some stitches and tightening others.
• Correcting vision problems. Refractive errors, such as nearsightedness and farsightedness, can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses or, in some cases, laser eye surgery.
(d)
(i) WL Gore & Associates, Inc is headquartered in Newark (12 miles west-southwest of capital Wilmington), Delaware. Wikipedia.
(ii)
(A) The Gore Story, within "About Gore." WL Gore, undated.
https://www.gore.com/about/the-gore-story?view=our-history
Quote:
"Overview[:] * * * Today, with more than $3 billion in annual revenues, the enterprise is privately owned. Our approximately 9,500 employees (called Associates) worldwide are also part owners of the enterprise through the Associate stock plan. Gore prefers this private ownership and believes this reinforces a key element of its culture to 'take a long-term view' when assessing business situations. Gore is one of the 200 largest privately held US companies. * * *
"Our History[:] * * * The 1969 discovery by Bill and Vieve's son, Bob Gore, of a remarkably versatile new polymer led the enterprise into myriad new applications in medical, fabric, pharmaceutical and biotechnology, oil and gas, aerospace, automotive, mobile electronics, music and semiconductor industries. As the company that invented this new polymer, expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (or ePTFE), and introduced it in the marketplace, Gore is committed to remaining a leader in fluoropolymers.
(B) Gore Technologies, within "About Gore." WL Gore, undated
https://www.gore.com/about/technologies
("Bob [Gore] experimented with PTFE in an effort to expand it, first heating up rods of PTFE and then gradually pulling it from either end — but the rods broke every time. Exasperated, Bob finally gave the rod of PTFE an accelerated pull. To his shock, the PTFE expanded ten times its original size! He immediately recognized what this meant. More possibilities! The expanded material was 70% air, enabling Gore to fill the ePTFE with complementary materials. The ePTFE was incredibly lightweight yet strong. It was porous and versatile")
* Polytetrafluoroethylene
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene
(PTFE; polymer of tetrafluoroethylene)
|
发表于 5-15-2019 14:00:23
收藏
分享
支持
反对
楼主