The application entitled ‘Aniridia – novel therapeutic tools to treat or prevent progressive corneal opacification (AAK-INSIGHT)’ was submitted by a consortium of researchers from several countries, led by Prof. Neil Lagali (Linköping University, Sweden) and Prof. Daniel Aberdam (CNRS, Biologie, Inserm-Technion, France).

The AAK-INSIGHT project will last 3 years and will have a budget of 1.4 million Euro. Its overall objective is to find a drug able to induce the production of PAX6 protein in the eye and cornea; the drug will be tested in cells and eye models of aniridia.

Among the scientists involved are Prof. Dominique Bremond-Gignac (chair of Aniridia Europe Scientific Committee), and the teams of Prof. Barbara Käsmann-Kellner and Prof. Nora Szentmary in Homburg (Germany), Prof. Martin Collinson in Aberdeen (UK), Dr Jo Zhou from the Netherlands, and Prof. Ruth Ashery-Padan from Israel. Some of these investigators belong to our Scientific Committee, or are in contact with it.

Aniridia Europe will be in the Patient Advisory Board of the project, as well as our member associations Gêniris, Aniridi Sverige and Asociación Española de Aniridia.