Setup of the eye perfusion

Eye perfusion is key to provide blood circulation into the human eye. After the eye is removed from the donor, it needs to be cannulated to allow blood profusion to keep the eye with its needed nutrients and oxygen. This is a very complicated step that needs meticulous and perseverant work to be achieved.

Our research team (Eimear, Umberto, Ricardo and Aida) has been busy in the lab figuring out how to connect tiny tubes to the vessels around the optic nerve. This has allowed them to push coloured dyes into the vessels, and see the vessels clearly under the microscope. 

The next big progress we made was with Dr. Jack Lee (KCL), who came in December and helped us to figure out how to put a material that solidifies rapidly into the vessels.

Now, we are figuring out how to image the retina and possibilities for imaging the whole eye, with the help of CRG ALMU and EMBL. This will allow us to make a map of the vessels in the retina and the eye. 

We are really grateful to everyone that has helped us so far, all of the Cosma group, CRG imaging unit (Xavier, Raquel, Raul, Arrate and Nadia), EMBL MIF (Jim and Montse), Clinica Barraquer (Justin), Centre de Medicina Comparativa i Bioimatge de Catalunya (Jordi), Mercat de la Concepció, xarcuteria Totbo Debón, Mercat de l’Abaceria, Mercat de Santa Caterina, MAfrica (Irene), Hospital Clínic (Marta) and Utrecht University (Charis, Nicky and Enrico).

We are one step closer to achieving ECaBox.