Dr. Remya A. Veettil from Baylor College of Medicine Awarded $90,000 Knights Templar Eye Foundation Grant for Blinding Corneal Neovascularization and Opacity Research

Dr. Remya A. Veettil from the Baylor College of Medicine, Department of Ophthalmology, Houston, Texas was awarded a $90,000 grant to study: Disease-targeted anti-hScg3 therapy to treat blinding corneal neovascularization and opacity.

Corneal injury can result in abnormal ingrowth of blood vessels into the cornea, known as corneal neovascularization, which is the second leading cause of blindness worldwide. In children, corneal neovascularization leads to amblyopia (lazy eye) and blindness, adversely affecting their visual development and their quality of life. There is currently no approved drug therapy for corneal neovascularization. Approved therapies for neovascularization in other eye diseases are often used off label to treat corneal neovascularization, but these can have potential side effects. Dr. Veettil recently discovered a novel protein called secretogranin III (Scg3) that selectively stimulates the growth of diseased but not healthy vessels, and she developed Scg3-blocking antibody for the therapy of disease related neovascularization without detectable side effects on healthy vessels and cells. The two aims in her proposal would compare the potential, efficacy, and safety of anti-Scg3 therapy to that of an off label therapy for corneal neovascularization. These studies will validate the superior therapeutic efficacy and safety of anti-Scg3 for preserving vision in children afflicted with corneal neovascularization and leading consequences like permanent blindness and amblyopia.