PITTSBURGH, March 6, 2025 -- Duquesne University's Nanomedicine Manufacturing Laboratory (NML) is taking tiny particles and using them to help remedy major health issues.
The lab, led by Duquesne Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics Dr. Jelena Janjic, was the first to create pain nanomedicine for trauma and surgical pain, which could lead to reducing the use of opioids for recovery. The NML also developed the first oxygen carrier with imaging clinical grade agents for real-time tracking during organ/limb preservation, which may reduce organ rejection and lead to improving transplantation success.
So it wasn't much of a surprise when the NML was tapped to participate with other institutions to make whole eye transplants a reality. More than 40 scientists, doctors and industry experts are joining together for the $56 million project from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts (THEA) program. Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, Blumenkranz Smead professor and chair of ophthalmology at the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford, serves as the principal investigator. José-Alain Sahel, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh, co-directs the initiative with Goldberg.
"We are uniquely prepared to work in multiple task areas of this project," Janjic said, adding that Duquesne was the only partner in the project to receive two sub-proposer contracts. "The nanomedicines we create provide imaging of the tissue during rejection, and in response to immunosuppression treatment, image optic nerve neuroinflammation post repair, and importantly aid in organ preservation and offer drug delivery that assists in transplantation."
These horizon-expanding opportunities are part of Duquesne's DNA, benefiting researchers, students and society by moving scientific discovery forward.
A key part of the NML's success is its quality-by-design process, which allows it to produce cost-effective, robust and scalable manufacturing methods for nanomedicines with a high level of quality control. Typical nanotechnology-based therapeutics are often burdened with high costs and challenging quality control issues. NML is unique in its ability to produce multi-liter quantities of complex patent-protected nanomedicine formulations across multiple uses, from pain relief to organ preservation.
The ARPA-H funding, which includes $1.2 million to Duquesne, is just the latest example of NML's success. Last year, the lab received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to expand research into using nanoparticle technology to preserve human limbs for transplantation surgeries.
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