Advanced Regenerative and REStorative Therapies to combat corneal BLINDNESS

Approximately 30 million Europeans are currently blind or visually impaired leading to reduced quality of life and a tremendous increase in health care costs and lost productivity. The unemployment rate in this group is 75% for those of working age, leading to an annual loss of 290 million workdays in Europe, while the cost of blindness alone, both medical and non‐medical (home adaptation, assistance) is estimated at €20 Billion per year. Corneal blindness is the second largest cause of blindness globally after cataract, and while most corneal blindness is preventable, millions remain unnecessarily blind due to problems of access to effective treatments.
The main goal of ARREST BLINDNESS is therefore to develop and validate more effective advanced regenerative and restorative therapies to treat the loss of corneal transparency so that it does not result in blindness.