Diseases of the posterior segment of the eye are rapidly increasing, partly due to an ageing population, which affects the entire EU (~20% of Europe’s population now over 65). One such condition, Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), is a leading cause of blindness in people over 50, and the number of Europeans living with some form of AMD is expected to increase to 77 million by 2050. In the case of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR), as many as 28 million Europeans could suffer from visual impairment due to this disease alone. As such, ORBITAL has worked towards aiding the management of complications associated with such chronic diseases. Despite accounting for approximately 55% of ocular conditions, significantly less than half of ocular product sales target the posterior segment due to the technical difficulties in developing safe, effective and easy-to-use formulations. These diseases represent a considerable and growing burden on patients and healthcare systems throughout the world and given the statistics, there is a worrying lack of researchers with the necessary interdisciplinary skills being trained to combat such increasing burdens. Thus, ORBITAL’s intrinsic training expertise has made it a vital tool in bridging this particular skills gap.
The ORBITAL ETN focused on the enhanced delivery of drugs for the treatment of posterior segment diseases of the eye. With a uniquely qualified and outstanding collaborative network of European and global experts, from academic, clinical and industrial sectors, ORBITAL has trained ESRs in materials science, nanotechnology, animal modelling, enhanced in vitro testing, in vivo ocular modelling, analytical chemistry and drug discovery, all under the overarching principle of drug delivery. Engagement with patients, patient groups and clinicians throughout the entirety of the training programme ensured that patient-oriented solutions remained at the centre of all research activity. With this multi-pronged approach, ORBITAL established itself as a leader in innovative ocular drug delivery technology that is both patient-centred and industry disrupting.
All researchers contributed to and completed the required deliverables, training, outputs, and publications to ensure all aspects of the ORBITAL programme were completed. All researchers who have not yet graduated are expected to finish in 2024. Severe impacts from COVID19 meant that for many researchers, lab access was reduced, along with travel and secondment training. Despite this, ORBITAL pivoted to online and virtual secondments where possible. ESRs received extensions through various local and national government assistance programmes, which will ensure their graduation. All ESRs who have already graduated have moved into full-time employment in research organisations either as post-doctoral researchers or lecturers.
