Enabling Advances in Ophthalmic HealthCare through Optical Coherence Tomography: Taking Technology from Bench to Bedside

One of the greatest challenges we face as scientists is translating ideas from the lab into a marketable product so that a wider audience may benefit from our efforts. It is neither obvious that there is a market ready to absorb the product of our insights, or a clear path to move product from lab to early adopters to the mass market (however that is defined). The process of commercializing our applied research in a start-up environment provides a whole new set of challenges, from finding partners, identifying the right market, defining and design a “product”, identifying funding routes, establishing patent protection, and dealing with the diverse motivations of all stakeholders from founders and investors to customers, employees and vendors. We have had the pleasure of addressing these questions at Bioptigen, Inc. as we have evolved from a “technology-push” spin-out of Duke University to the leading producer of research-grade Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography (SDOCT) for translational research of ophthalmic disease, and the only producer of SDOCT for unique pediatric and surgical ophthalmology applications.

SDOCT is a non-invasive optical imaging modality serving a unique niche between histology and ultrasound. We acquire ultra-high resolution (<4 mm axial and <20 mm lateral) depth-resolved images at up to 30 frames per second, allowing for real-time volumetric scanning of ocular tissue microstructure. Non-invasive structural imaging of animal models from mouse to monkey is finding increasing application to the study of genetic and extrinsically mediated eye disease, at lowering research costs, and improving accuracy. This pre-clinical research has direct implications to the development of diagnostics and therapy for human healthcare. Functional imaging using Doppler flow analysis, spectroscopic SDOCT, and polarization-sensitive SDOCT holds promise for more tightly tying structure to function in vision and in systemic disease with signatures in the eye (such as Multiple Sclerosis). SDOCT is the most rapidly growing imaging modality in ophthalmology, with significant untapped clinical potential.

During the course of my talk, I will review the state and future of Spectral Domain Optical Coherence Tomography for research and clinical ophthalmology, presented in the context of the experiences of a North Carolina optical technology and MedTech start-up.