Education and Public Engagement
Research
Professional Help
In order to improve how we develop our prototype we needed to get in contact with experts in the fields of eye surgery and cataracts research. Our first step was to contact eye doctors to discuss any problems associated with current cataracts treatment. Finally, while developing our project we realized that cataracts is a major issue in pets and other animals as well as people. As a result, we contacted local veterinarians to discuss what pet owners do when their pets contract cataracts. As our project developed, we needed more specific information regarding our genes of interest, cataracts development, and our delivery mechanism. We contacted scientists doing research similar to our own to get their opinion on our projects progress.
Contact with Eye Doctors
Eye doctors are on the front lines, delivering cataracts surgery, some privately and others for charity in organizations such as the Himalayan Cataracts Projects. We contacted local Taiwanese Eye Doctors to ask them about cataracts surgery. Here is a list of the doctors we contacted along with the information they provided:
Dr. Wei-Chi Wu is a retina specialist and an associate professor at Chang Gung memorial hospital in Taiwan. According to Dr. Wu current cataracts surgery methods are efficient and effective, but are not without their issues. Besides the issue of price, there can also be several different post-surgery complications such as infection, hemorrhaging, or secondary glaucoma. In regards to our project, he said one of the biggest issues we would face is non-invasive delivery. Currently, injections and incisions are the only methods for delivery because all current potential methods of noninvasive delivery either lack efficiency or induce with side effects.
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/6/67/T--TAS_Taipei--GSR_Construct_Experimental.jpg)
Citations
![](https://static.igem.org/mediawiki/2016/e/e5/T--TAS_Taipei--Taipei_Background_1.0.jpg)
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