Technology

BioEngineered AccuCornea™
 

 

 

 

Xgene’s cell-sorted organ regeneration technology provides an innovative method for creating a bi-layer  human corneal equivalent, termed AccuCornea™.  Using Xgene's patented technology, homogenously mixed epithelial and mesenchymal cells rely on the body’s natural tissue-building mechanisms to generate a bi-layered corneal equivalent in vitro.  Based on our success with reconstructing AccuSkin™ using CeSSE technology, this cell-sorted organ regeneration technology has been successfully translated into making an organotypic in vitro human corneal equivalent composed of human corneal epithelial and stromal cells.  Fueling market demand for in vitro ocular tests is a worldwide trend to replace existing Draize and other animal tests for product testing.  In fact, an EEC ban on animal testing  (European Economic Community) takes effect in January-2009.  Consumer product, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical companies are in search of animal-free test platforms to conduct their research and development in order to comply with this new regulation.

Normal Human Corneal Epithelium and Stroma Cross-Sections 

 
 

Compare and Contrast Skin vs. Cornea

 

AccuCornea™ samples in transwell inserts

Nearly transparent, slightly contracted, and highly viable 24-day old AccuCornea sample is shown on the left panel.  Viable, non-contracted 24-day old AccuCornea sample is shown on the right.

AccuCornea™ Products-Services

AccuCornea™ Products 

AccuCornea™ is an unique three-dimensional human corneal equivalent because it is the only commercially available in vitro corneal test platform containing human corneal stromal cells.  Since approximately 90% of the cells are stromal cells in human cornea, Xgene's 3-D human AccuCornea™ model is expected to have this unique advantage over our competitors' models in its presumed ability to generate responses from both epithelial and stromal cells.  Our competitors' corneal epithelium products are functionally limited to epithelial-only responses due to their intrinsically inherited property of the  models containing only one of the three tissue layers found in the natural human cornea.

Custom AccuCornea™ Services

Custom-tailored AccuCornea™ can be reconstructed with a wide choice of corneal cells. For example, the input cell types can be derived from young vs. old donors, normal vs. disease-afflicted biopsies, and/or genetically engineered cells, such as siRNA knockdown cells. For adaptations to your companies' specific needs, please inquire.

  • Absolutely NO Testing on Live Animals' Corneas!  Many of the existing tests done in animals can be safely replaced by in vitro products.  More details can be found at the ECVAM and ICCVAM web sites under useful links.

  • AccuCornea™ can be adapted to high-throughput screening formats and is anticipated to show similar responses on broad classes of compounds similar to human cornea.  With careful experimental design, pharmacological responses on the following classes of products can be tested on the AccuCornea™ samples to generate the necessary toxicology, efficacy, or irritancy responses to expedite target selection and validation processes during drug development.

    1. Toxicology

    2. Cosmetics

    3.  Personal Care Products

    4. Disease modeling

  • Refer to the application page for proven downstream applications

  • an upside-down version of AccuCornea, with additional development & eventually FDA approval, may also have potential medical grafting applications.

For more information about this prototype product, please inquire.

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