Universidad de Navarra (UN) |

Partner description

Partner UN incorporates the Departments of Ophthalmology, Hematology and Cell Therapy located in the multidisciplinary clinical center, the Clínica Universidad de Navarra (CUN), innovative in research and teaching and international and social involvement.

Prof. Garcia-Layana, retinal surgeon and vice-director of the Department of Ophthalmology leads the Experimental Ophthalmology laboratory, which is fully equipped for cell and molecular biology and comprises the accredited Animal Services Unit (n° 989) within the Center of Applied Pharmacobiology Research (CIFA) following the guidelines on the protection and housing of animals (Royal Decree 1201/2005, European Directive 86/609/EEC and revised ETS 123).

The Experimental Ophthalmology laboratory carries out several preclinical trials for age related macular degeneration (AMD) and regenerative medicine using novel therapies to understand the molecular basis of retinal diseases and novel clinical therapies. Prof. Garcia-Layana has coordinated several clinical trials based on the anti-angiogenic treatment of retinal degenerative diseases.

Main tasks attributed to the project

UN is tasked within the TargetAMD project with the development of in vivo CNV animalmodels to test safety, pharmacokinetics and efficacy of the transposon-mediated gene delivery (WP3, 5). Additionally, partner UN with its expertise defined and validated in-process control protocols (WP7) and was involved in the definition of clinical trial protocols (WP8). Partner UN will disseminate data from TargetAMD (WP10).

Contact

Prof. Alfredo Garcia Layana

aglayana@unav.es

Prof. Alfredo Garcia Layana, MD, retinal surgeon, specifically investigates AMD. He is Vice-director of the Department of Ophthalmology and head of the Experimental Ophthalmology Laboratory, national coordinator of the Spanish Network Research Group of the Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo, member of the board of Directors of the Spanish Vitreoretinal Society and founder member of the Committee of European Experts in Micronutrition of the Eye. He participated in national and international advisory boards of pharmaceuticals companies, such as Novartis, Bayer, Pfizer, Bausch & Lomb, Allergan, Thea, Lilly, Proretina, Secugen and Digna Biotech.