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Preclinical Ophthalmology Research Solutions

There are a large number of patients with hereditary ophthalmic diseases worldwide. Due to the limited effectiveness of traditional treatments, the world has turned to gene therapy drugs. As of 2021, Ophthalmology ranks second in the gene therapy pipeline according to number of treatments in development. There are many gene therapy drugs currently on the market, but basic research and clinical translation in ophthalmology faces many difficulties, such as complicated operation, long production period of experimental models, and expensive equipment.

As a comprehensive contract research organization (CRO) solution provider, Cyagen recognizes ophthalmic diseases as a breakthrough point for gene therapy and has established an ophthalmic gene therapy platform to overcome the above obstacles. We have equipped the platform with state-of-the-art ophthalmic instruments for small animals and an experienced professional team. With 16 years of gene editing model construction experience, Cyagen can provide you with an array of standardized preclinical research solutions for ophthalmic gene therapy.

ABOUT US
Cyagen's Preclinical Ophthalmology Research Platform is equipped with a full set of world-renowned ophthalmic detecting instruments and has a number of senior technical experts, which have allowed us to provide a full range of services.
WHAT WE OFFER
With 16 years of experience in the field of custom animal models, Cyagen has independently developed a series of gene editing models targeting ophthalmic diseases and a whole set of ophthalmic pharmacodynamics analysis services.
CASE STUDY
The help of The Rare Disease Data Center (RDDC), mature technical routes and many successful cases prove to you that Cyagen's Preclinical Ophthalmology Research Solutions are professional and standardized.
ABOUT US
Cyagen's Preclinical Ophthalmology Research Platform is equipped with a full set of world-renowned ophthalmic detecting instruments and has a number of senior technical experts, which have allowed us to provide a full range of services.
High-end Experimental Instruments
Our ophthalmic gene therapy platform is equipped with a full set of world-renowned ophthalmic detecting instruments which have allowed us to provide a full range of verification services. Our ocular technologies include the Micron IV small animal retinal microscopic imaging system, full-field electroretinogram (ffERG), image-guided optical coherence tomography (OCT) system, and handheld ophthalmotonometer for mice. We can provide detection services for rodent models of eye-related diseases including diabetic retinopathy, retinoblastoma, macular degeneration, pediatric retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), choroidal neovascularization, and retinitis pigmentosa.
Micron IV Small Animal Retinal Microscopic Imaging System
Full-field Electroretinogram (ffERG)
Image-Guided Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) System
Icare Ophthalmotonometer for Mice

Micron IV Small Animal Retinal Microscopic Imaging System

The Micron IV small animal retinal microscopic imaging system enables high-quality in vivo real-time imaging, including brightfield, vascular structures, and GFP, YFP, CFP, mCherry-labeled fluorescence imaging, and can focus from the lens to the retinal surface.

Full-field Electroretinogram (ffERG)

  • Provide comprehensive and accurate acquisition of retinal data to analyze retinal function.
  • Specifically stimulate S-cones, M-cones, and rods, and record specific retinal responses in rodent photoreceptors.
  • Control the stimulation of UV and green light with professional software, including pulse width, delay, stimulus intensity and flicker frequency.

Image-Guided Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) System

The high-resolution spectral-threshold OCT imaging device can achieve a lateral resolution of 2 μm (mice) and 4 μm (rats), and a longitudinal resolution of 1.8 μm.

Icare Ophthalmotonometer for Mice

The ophthalmotonometer is based on rebound technology, which uses a lightweight probe to make brief, painless contact with the cornea to achieve the measurement of intraocular pressure, avoiding discomfort without anesthesia.
Senior Technical Experts
Cyagen's Gene Therapy CRO Platform has a number of senior technical experts who can provide you with a full range of guidance services in the fields of gene therapy strategy formulation, AAV vector design, custom animal models, and pharmacological efficacy evaluation.

Marvin Ouyang, PhD

Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer

Marvin Ouyang served as Senior Scientist of the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation of the United States; has been devoted to genetically engineered mice for more than 20 years; has successfully developed thousands of transgenic and gene knockout/knock-in mouse and rat models.

Reza Rezaei, PhD

Vice President, Business Development of Marketing & Sales

Reza Rezaei holds a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (DVM) as well as a PhD and has been in biopharma sales since his graduation from Texas A&M University. He has extensive experience working with lab animals both as a clinical practitioner and a research scientist.

Shawn Zhou, PhD

Director of R&D Center

Shawn Zhou has extensive experience in gene and cell therapy research and preclinical research in biopharmaceuticals.

Sheng Ren, PhD

Associate Director of R&D Center

Sheng Ren specializes on the research of virology and the development of gene therapeutic agents; has a number of patents related to virus and gene therapy; participated in the first investigational new drug (IND) application for ophthalmic AAV gene therapy products in China.

Daisy Li, PhD

Senior Scientist

Daisy Li is mainly responsible for the R&D of Cyagen Ophthalmology CRO Platform, majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology, with rich experience in animal disease model construction and drug efficacy evaluation.

Gary Ran, PhD

Senior Scientist

Gary Ran specializes in tissue-specific targeted transformation research based on adeno-associated virus vector and rAAV, non-alcoholic liver disease injury regeneration and liver cancer targeted gene therapy, and has many years of experience in the research of AAV.
WHAT WE OFFER
With 16 years of experience in the field of custom animal models, Cyagen has independently developed a series of gene editing models targeting ophthalmic diseases and a whole set of ophthalmic pharmacodynamics analysis services.
Ophthalmic Mouse and Rat Models
With 16 years of experience in the field of custom animal models, Cyagen has independently developed a series of gene editing models targeting ophthalmic diseases (e.g., retinitis pigmentosa (RP), retinal degeneration, Leber congenital amaurosis 2 (LCA2), macular degeneration, Leber congenital amaurosis 10 (LCA10), and endothelial corneal dystrophy).We can provide you with genetically engineered animal models, fully-humanized mouse models, and surgical models to accelerate your preclinical pharmacodynamics evaluations.
Ophthalmic Mouse Model Catalog
Custom Animal Models of Ophthalmic Diseases
Disease Genes Tech Status
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● Looking for something else? We have many more gene edited mouse models, click here to search!

TurboKnockout-Pro

Our TurboKnockout® service can provide you with knockout, knock-in, and humanization mouse models of ophthalmic diseases with high homologous recombination (HR) efficiency but no patent risk! It is an important tool for preclinical researchers seeking to avoid CRISPR technology and the related licensing costs in the development of gene therapy drugs, antibody drugs, and small molecule drugs.

CRISPR-Pro

Our CRISPR-Pro services can provide you with knockout, knock-in and point mutation mouse models of ophthalmic diseases. Compared with other gene editing technologies, the key advantages of CRISPR-Pro are its high efficiency, rapid turnaround, high chimerism rate, stable reproductive inheritance, and high homologous recombination (HR) efficiency.

Surgical Models

We can provide you with custom ophthalmic surgery models. Our surgical model experiments are highly standardized to ensure reproducibility of results, and the authenticity of the data is guaranteed.
Disease Modeling Method
Macular Degeneration DL-AAA Injection Modeling
Laser-Induced Modeling
H VEGF Overexpression Modeling
Endophthalmitis Intraocular Bacterial Endotoxin Injection Modeling
Corneal Injury Corneal Epithelial Cell Curettage Modeling
Ophthalmology Pharmacodynamic Analysis Platform

Cyagen's professional platform can provide you with a whole set of ophthalmic pharmacodynamics analysis services, including injection, biopsies, tissue sampling, pathological analysis, and molecular detection of gene and protein expression.

We have a team of professional technicians ready to help with your research, they are trained to:

01
Conduct difficult administrations in mice, such as subretinal, intravitreal and subconjunctival injections;
02
Conduct in vivo eye detection, such as ocular surface observation, intraocular pressure measurement, fundus photography, fundus fluoroscopy, retina/corneal optical coherence tomography and retinal electrophysiological detection and analysis;
03
Conduct ophthalmic tissue sampling, such as collection of aqueous humor, preparation of slices and sections of mouse retina and cornea;
04
Conduct professional pathological detection, such as routine staining of eyeball tissue sections, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence detection;
05
Conduct professional molecular detection, such as detection of gene and protein expression of retinal tissue by Western blot (WB), quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
Ophthalmic Sampling Procedure
Pathological Analysis of Ophthalmic Diseases

Ophthalmic Sampling Procedure

Step 1: Remove the retinal tissue from the eyeballs of mice;
Step 2: Lay the retinal tissue on slides;
Step 3: Observe and analyze the expression of retinal target molecules or lesions.
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●The retinal fluorescence detection 4 weeks after intravitreal injection (AAV2-CMV-EGFP).

Pathological Analysis of Ophthalmic Diseases

There are structural differences between the eyeballs of small animals and those of large animals. Cyagen has tackled the difficulties of ophthalmic pathological detection for small animals and established a set of practical and effective detection methods for mice and rats.

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●Left: Hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining of mouse eyeball (paraffin section); Right: HE staining of mouse retina (paraffin section).
CASE STUDY
The help of The Rare Disease Data Center (RDDC), mature technical routes and many successful cases prove to you that Cyagen's Preclinical Ophthalmology Research Solutions are professional and standardized.
RDDC Power Your Research
Searching for Leber congenital amaurosis type 10 (LCA10) in RDDC can provide disease phenotype, disease-related information, target drugs, clinical trials, and more. Shown in the figure is the disease-related information of LCA10.
The Rare Disease Data Center (RDDC) covers epidemiological data, drug development profiles, gene data, gene mutation sites, and experimental animal models of rare diseases from sources around the world. It has also established artificial intelligence (AI) tools to achieve the function of predicting pathogenicity and splicing site changes based on all available data. For example, searching for the disease-causing gene CEP290 of Leber congenital amaurosis type 10 (LCA10) in RDDC can yield the gene sequence homology, genomic information, clinical mutations, transcripts, related diseases, phenotypes, and gene expression levels. The Rare Disease Data Center (RDDC) can play an important role in the research and development of ophthalmic gene therapy solutions.
Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) Disease Model
Neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is characterized by choroidal neovascularization (CNV) with exudates, intraretinal and subretinal hemorrhages, retinal pigment epithelial detachment, hard exudates, or subretinal fibrous scarring. The researchers successfully induced a mouse disease model by laser on the mouse fundus, and designed an AAV-antiVEGF drug that can block vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) according to the mechanism of inhibiting the formation of CNV. The results confirmed that AAV-antiVEGF has inhibitory effect on laser-induced CNV in mice, and can effectively prevent the progression of neovascular AMD, providing a potential therapeutic method for patients. In terms of research ideas, strategies, and technologies, this publication provides a very good reference for the use of small animal disease-inducing models to carry out gene function research, as well as gene therapy method development and efficacy evaluations.
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