Bay Vision - Spring 2018

Avellino Labs specializes in providing eye care professionals such as ophthalmologists and optometrists with a cost-effective and fast DNA screening test to ensure their patients are suitable for refractive surgery (e.g. LASIK corrective vision procedure). The company was founded in Korea with test labs established in Korea, Japan and China, and recently brought their technology to the Western world through Avellino Labs USA. Scott Korney , Chief Operating Officer at Avellino Labs USA, is helping to launch the test on a global scale. He tells us that the test looks for a group of gene mutations cause the TGFBI corneal dystrophies . Corneal dystrophy is an inherited eye condition affecting the cornea, which is the transparent front of the eye. If we get damage to our eye, for example, from a scratch or too much UV light from the sun, our body has a natural wound-healing response where it sends proteins into the cornea and repairs the damage. However, for people that carry these mutations, they alter the way the proteins work to heal the wound, producing an excessive amount which creates opacification in the eye and will eventually lead to partial or total loss of vision. Many people now have elective refractive procedures to the eye for vision correction purposes. For example, LASIK is a procedure where a flap is created in the front of the eye and the cornea is reshaped to improve vision. This is a very common and safe procedure and means that people can replace the need for contact lenses or glasses. However, the flap that is created triggers a wound-healing response in the eye and for people who have a TGFBI corneal dystrophy mutation, this can lead to very bad outcomes. There are hundreds and hundreds of documented cases of people who have lost their vision after LASIK surgery because of this. There are about 50 types of these mutations, but they can be narrowed down to less than 5 that are most common. One is called Avellino corneal dystrophy , which is named after a town in a province in Italy. A paper published in the 1980s traced a group of individuals who have these corneal dystrophy mutations from South and North America back to Avellino, Italy, and it was named after them. It’s also well known as granular corneal dystrophy type 2 and is probably the most common mutation in the Western world. Bay Vision 12 Avellino Labs