The company Optotek used the knowledge acquired in the field of preclinical studies to treat retina on the last segment of pig eyes to better understand the therapeutic intervention of the selective laser trabeculoplasty on the anterior segment of the eye as well as to understand the therapeutic intervention iridotomy used to treat the medical condition glaucoma. In October 2016 the company Optotek for example obtained the CE mark for the new patented product OptoSLT nano for the treatment of glaucoma, which was officially launched on the market at the American Academy of Ophthalmology in October 2016 in Chicago. Based on the acquired knowledge further preclinical studies are in course aimed at improving the efficiency of iridotomy surgical procedure. Both of these surgeries are being implemented in the anterior segment and are needed because related medical conditions cause elevated intraocular pressure and thus can lead to damage of the optical nerve in the retina. The gained knowledge from preclinical studies of ocular structures thus represents basis for a comprehensive approach to the development of improved systems for the treatment of ocular anterior segments as well as the basis for the development of entirely new systems for the treatment of retina.
F.06 Development of a new product
A PhD thesis entitled »Development and evaluation of a laser for posterior capsulotomy« was successfully defended by Optotek research fellow Uroš Orthaber in November 2016. A novel patent-pending solution for treatment of conditions of the anterior eye segment, which is based on an innovative diode-pumped solid state laser enabled Optotek to define new therapeutic strategies in ophthalmology. Knowledge and know-how related to ophthalmic laser sources and interactions between laser light and ocular tissues, acquired in the scope of the mentioned PhD thesis, is applied to treatment of retinal conditions as part of the ARRS project.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 3040868The application of the next generation of autonomous teranostic systems in combination with laser scanning, which is already in use independently, relies on the localisation of the tissue parts which have already been treated by laser light but their traces have been lost due to eye motion or tissue changes. In the project a special method has been developed to trace the effects of laser light and to identify the threshold of the light density at which the laser light can be traced. This method based on our own development of microspectroscopy can be used to trace the laser light in the future laser-based ophthalmic surgery operations.
F.21 Development of new health/diagnostic methods/procedures