The Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative (MTM Vision), in partnership with the University of Michigan (U-M) and the Joslin Diabetes Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, has organized a global collaboration of experts to join the fight against vision loss from Diabetic Retinal Disease (DRD). To amplify their efforts, MTM Vision has established a public-private Consortium here at the U-M Caswell Diabetes Institute and U-M Kellogg Eye Center.
The MTM Vision Consortium unites innovators from universities, foundations, and pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the pre-competitive space, offering members access to two essential research assets: the MTM Vision Ocular Biorepository and Resource Center (MTM-BRC) at UM and the MTM Vision Clinical Endpoints and Disease Biomarkers Data Resource (MTM-CER). These resources enable human tissue examination, the conduct of select clinical studies, and the aggregation of results of others in an accessible “data lake,” identifying and validating new molecular and cellular therapeutic targets and novel biomarkers and clinical endpoints. The longitudinal clinical data, retinal images, phenotypic data, visual function information, quality of life measures, and retinal physiology data provided by MTMVI initiatives will accelerate new drug development, including by informing the establishment of new regulatory pathways for drug approvals by the FDA. These resources are critical to translating advances in laboratory science into improved patient outcomes.
We heartily welcome Boehringer Ingelheim as the first corporate member of the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Consortium. Boehringer Ingelheim's exceptional science advances our mutual goal to prevent vision loss and restore vision in persons with diabetes. - Dr. Thomas W. Gardner, Director, Mary Tyler Moore Vision Consortium
As a founding industry member, Boehringer Ingelheim (BI) plays an essential role in the MTM Vision Consortium. Their involvement brings the Consortium closer to achieving its Phase I goals, which include expanding the number of human ocular tissue and fluid samples available through the MTM-BRC to enhance therapeutic drug target identification and validation, as well as completing our first two clinical studies evaluating novel endpoints of visual function. BI’s scientific and strategic input will help define future research directions and will attract new members to the Consortium. In addition to their founding membership in the MTM Vision Consortium, BI will support the University of Michigan's development of a new DRD Patient Reported Outcomes (PRO) instrument in partnership with MTM Vision and led by Dr. K. Thiran Jayasundera, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Michigan.
Tom Gardner, M.D., M.S., (Professor of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, University of Michigan Medical School) serves as Director of the MTM Vision Consortium and MTM Vision Scientific Co-Director.
Key Highlights of the MTM Vision Consortium:
◊ The MTM Vision Consortium is a member-based, collaborative effort that leverages expertise from multiple sectors to create sharable resources that can, in the pre-competitive space, fill knowledge gaps, respond to unmet needs, overcome barriers to research progress, and accelerate the development of new therapies to prevent and cure vision loss from diabetes.
◊ The MTM Vision Consortium is housed at the University of Michigan’s Caswell Diabetes Institute and Kellogg Eye Center and is supported by contributions that MTM Vision and its industry partners provide to the Consortium.
◊ Membership in the Consortium grants access to unique and valuable resources within the MTM-BRC and MTM-CER, including data and samples of human eye tissues and clinical trial data, to advance the field and attract further investment by industry in DRD drug development.
◊ The MTM Vision Consortium aims to develop new treatment targets and inform new regulatory pathways, ultimately accelerating the availability of new treatments to prevent and cure vision loss from diabetes.