Abstract

The ‘Translational Biophotonics: Diagnostics and Therapeutic' sessions are part of the European Conferences on Biomedical Optics, providing a platform for translational research in biomedical optics and biophotonics. This paper complements our invited talk at the conference held in Munich, Germany, June 25-29, 2023. We briefly describe the Longfellow Project as a new model of innovation through collaboration across academia and industry that we have developed at Massachusetts General Hospital Research Institute, Boston, USA, since 2015. We illustrate the implementation of the model by sharing the translation journey of a novel concept in corneal refractive surgery. Invented and currently in development at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, USA, in collaboration with international academic institutions and industry partners in Luebeck, Jena, and Munich, Germany, the procedure consists of injecting a viscous filler into a femtosecond laser-created corneal pocket to increase the refractive power thereby minimally invasive treating hyperopia and presbyopia. Our intent is not to provide a full review of the work in the field but to show through one concrete example what it takes to move a discovery in the lab along the translational pathway to clinical practice.

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