BioLight (TASE:BOLT) signed a research collaboration agreement with Alexion, a rare disease unit of AstraZeneca, to explore a potentially ground-breaking technology that utilizes natural tears for the potential diagnosis of retinal diseases.
The study, financed by Alexion and BioLight, will evaluate a screening technique that analyzes components of the tear film, an outer eye surface fluid layer.
The technology was licensed from Harvard University and will be utilized to analyze tear samples by one of the inventors, Prof. Yifat Merbl, of the Weizmann Institute of Science. The study will be conducted at the Tel Aviv Medical Center and led by Prof. Anat Loewenstein, chairman of the ophthalmology department.
“Finding an effective and simple tool for diagnosing during the early stages of a disease’s development is a game changer,” Yaacov Michlin, CEO of BioLight, said in a statement. “This is the objective of the experiment and research, endeavoring to detect retinal disease through human tear sampling.”
