Madhavan said ‘At Sankara Nethralaya alone, approximately 6,000 patients are seen at the ocular surface clinic every year, almost 80 per cent have some form of dry eyes.

About 125 new patients of Stevens Johnson Syndrome are seen in a year, out of which nearly 25 per cent may benefit from Cultured Corneal Epithelial Transplant, 75 new patients of thermal / chemical injury are seen every year, out of which almost 80 per cent will benefit from Corneal Limbal Stem Cell Transplantation, he said.

Madhavan said various surgical techniques have been developed to treat Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency (LSCD). The treatment is mainly through the transplantation of ex-vivo expanded corneal limbal stem cells on Human Amniotic membrane matrix.

The new project aims at cultivation of Human corneal limbal tissue within the Mebiol Gel and characterisation of the cultivated corneal limbal stem cells using molecular markers.’ he added.

He further said that ‘It is the first time in the world that a non biological (totally synthetic) material has been used as the substrate to grow corneal limbal stem cells hereby paving a way for avoiding biological materials such as HAM to avoid viral and other dangerous contaminations as well as rejections.’

Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Sankara Nethralaya, Dr S S Badrinath stressed for more such meaningful research by Indo-Japan to give better service to humanity.