Translational Vision Research in the Department of Ophthalmology

The Connexin Biology team is led by Professor Colin Green who holds the W & B Hadden Chair of Ophthalmology and Translational Vision Research. The Connexin Biology Team has a primary focus on wound healing and tissue regeneration. Research is conducted on gap junction channel modulation for corneal repair, spinal cord and optic nerve injury, glaucoma, macular degeneration, neurodegenerative diseases and epilepsy.

Two platforms, connexin specific antisense oligodeoxynucleotides and connexin mimetic peptides have proven effective in the treatment of wounds, providing reduced inflammation and oedema, less scarring and faster wound closure. As the treatments limit lesion spread they are especially effective is nerve sparing after injury to the central nervous system, including the retina and optic nerve. They have proven effective in clinical trials for chronic wounds and in compassionate use in patients with severe non-healing ocular burns.

The involvement of connexins in ischaemic optic neuropathy (ION), retinal ischemia and glaucoma is a major focus with Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer’s Optic Nerve and Glaucoma team. The group is using connexin mimetic peptides that when delivered systemically are able to provide significant retinal ganglion cell sparing after retinal ischemia. The team is also using connexin specific antisense oligodeoxynucleotides which are proving beneficial after glaucoma surgery to decrease inflammation and scar formation at the surgical site, and consequently improve surgical outcomes. The delivery of these wound healing products in the ocular environment is the basis of the team’s collaboration with Dr Ilva Rupenthal who is heading up the Department of Ophthalmology’s ocular pharmaceutics team. This work focuses on the retention and stability of the active agent in different delivery systems and efficacy of delivery. This work extends to Macular Degeneration and collaborations with Dr Monica Acosta (Optometry) and Dr Philip Polkinghorne (Ophthalmology).

• Dr Ilva Rupenthal
• Department of Optometry and Vision Science

In the central nervous system the team works on spinal cord injury, investigating nerve treatments and repair strategies with connexin knockdown or connexon channel block agents, and peripheral nerve grafts or nanofibre technologies for lesion repair. The possibility of using autologous ocular pluripotent cells to help repopulate spinal cord neurons is also being investigated with Associate Professor Trevor Sherwin. Perinatal brain ischemia studies are being carried out with Professor Alistair Gunn and Professor Laura Bennet’s fetal physiology group (Physiology), and Professor Louise Nicholson’s group in the Centre for Brain Research. Work with Professor Louise Nicholson’s team and Associate Professor Bronwen Conner (Centre for Brain Research) is investigating gap junction roles, and regulation of gap junctions, for neurodegenerative diseases of the brain, stroke, as well as central nervous system regeneration and CNS repair strategies.

Corneal stem cells and cell reprogramming is a research interest with Associate Professor Trevor Sherwin’s CORnEa laboratory group. The team is investigating how the supposed corneal stem cell is regulated and how cells repopulate a wound to the front of the eye. The group has discovered that corneal fibroblastic cells can be directly reprogrammed into nerves opening new possibilities for tissue engineering and regeneration in a range of tissues. Wound healing and corneal disease work is also carried out with Cornea and Anterior Segment Research Group led by Professor Charles McGhee, Dr Dipika Patel, Dr Sue Ormonde, Associate Professor Trevor Sherwin and Professor Green.

• Cornea and Stem Cells - Associate Professor Trevor Sherwin

The Connexin Biology Group maintains active international collaborations including with colleagues at the University of New South Wales, University College London, University of Technology Sydney, University of Queensland, University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey, Northwestern University Chicago, and Kingston University UK.

• University of New South Wales
• University College London
• University of Technology Sydney
• University of Queensland
• University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey
• Kingston University UK

The Connexin Biology Team acknowledges financial support from the RSNZ Marsden Fund, The School of Medicine Foundation, New Zealand Health Research Council, Save Sight Society of New Zealand, Glaucoma New Zealand, Maurice & Phyllis Paykel Trust, Auckland Medical Research Foundation, the CatWalk Trust and an endowment from W&B Hadden.

CoDa Therapeutics

CoDa Therapeutics (NZ) Ltd is a biotechnology company formed in 2004 by Professor Colin Green and Professor David Becker. Professor Green is the W & B Hadden Chair of Ophthalmology and Translational Vision Science in the Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Auckland and Dr Becker is Professor in Cell and Developmental biology at University College, London, England. CoDa Therapeutics (NZ) Ltd evolved from research into gap junction proteins and cell to cell communication and the potential to interrupt the cell to cell communication when an injury/insult is sustained by an organ/tissue.

At the inception of CoDa Therapeutics (NZ) Ltd Mr Aki von Roy, an ex-president of the major pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb, was appointed as the Chief Executive. The company subsequently expanded in 2006 with the establishment of CoDa Therapeutics Inc., (USA) in Diego, USA. and CoDa appointed Mr Brad Duff, a biotechnology industry veteran, as CEO of CoDa Therapeutics Inc. (USA). CoDa has subsequently raised funding for clinical trials exceeding US$73 million (NZ$90 million). CoDa has obtained approval from the USA Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to launch Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical trials which started in 2007, for the testing of Nexagon in both eye and skin indications.

• CoDa Therapeutics