NanOptima aims to address the significant burden of retinal diseases such as wet age-related macular degeneration(AMD), diabetic retinopathy, and retinal vein occlusion. These conditions affect approximately 570,000 people in the UK and over 96 million worldwide. Current treatments, which involve frequent intravitreal injections of anti-VEGF drugs every 1-3 months, are expensive, inconvenient, and unpleasant for patients. Patients often need extended treatments for years, potentially for life. If the intervals between treatments are extended beyond the durability of the anti-VEGF treatment and falls below therapeutic levels, the disease can progress, leading to permanent retinal damage. Current treatments are also limited by a high rate of non-compliance(up to 40%), which reduces their effectiveness in real-world conditions. NanOptima is designing nano-scale drug-release depots constructed from self-assembling polymer filaments and natural human biopolymers. The materials we use will break down into compounds that occur normally throughout the human body, making the treatment safe. The depots are designed to be injected as infrequently as every six months, through a very fine needle with no need for surgical implantation, delivering proven existing retinal anti-VEGF treatments with the intention of being formulated in future with novel treatments under development in the pharmaceutical industry. The solution will make treatment less invasive, reduce risks, distress and costs, and maintain sight-protecting treatment levels for longer. This solution aims to reduce the need for frequent, invasive treatments, lower healthcare costs, and improve patient compliance. The technology has the potential to be adapted for novel retinal treatments currently in development, further extending its applicability. NanOptima is based at Alderley Science Park, where it has access to advanced facilities and senior pharmaceutical expertise. The company has already demonstrated the feasibility of its technology in a previous Innovate UK project and expects to secure partnerships with global pharmaceutical companies to bring its solution to market. Successful completion of this project could attract significant investment to the UK, create high-value jobs, and support contract research organisations in the development process. Ultimately, NanOptima's innovation aims to enhance patient outcomes, reduce healthcare costs, and create a sustainable, long-term solution for retinal diseases, benefiting patients worldwide and generating revenue for UK businesses.

**NanOptima has a mission to reduce the colossal burden of treatment for retinal diseases, specifically "wet" age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinal vein occlusion**. These conditions are estimated to affect 570,000 people in the UK and and at least 96M worldwide. Current proven protein drug treatments preserve sight, but require intravitreal injections every 1-2 months, which is costly for healthcare systems since injections must be done by trained clinicians, is very unpleasant for patients, and loses days of patients' and carers' time, while every injection carries a low but accumulating risk of serious complications. Worrying public reaction to COVID-19 has resulted in a dramatic trend of patients neglecting signs of vision loss and not presenting to a perceived high-risk environment such as a hospital (incidence down nearly 80% from 2019). As COVID-19 risk decreases, there will likely be a considerable surge in the presentation of emergency cases with more advanced sight loss, to an already overburdened healthcare system (_Eye_ volume 34, pages 1189--1192(2020)). NanOptima is designing nano-scale drug-release depots constructed from self-assembling polymer filaments and natural human biopolymers. The materials we use will break down into compounds that occur normally throughout the human body. The depots are designed to be injected infrequently, through a very fine needle with no need for surgical implantation, delivering proven existing retinal treatments with the intention of being formulated in future with novel treatments under development in the pharmaceutical industry. The solution will make treatment less invasive, reduce risks, distress and costs, and maintain sight-protecting treatment levels for longer. NanOptima is a small UK company based at Alderley Science Park where we have access to high-tech equipment and facilities, and are supported by an unrivalled pool of experienced pharmaceutical specialists. In this project, NanOptima will partner closely with a leading academic materials design group at the **University of Manchester**, with a track record of translating research into clinical and commercial sector. On successful completion of this project, NanOptima expects to partner internationally with ophthalmic pharmaceutical companies, sharing risk and attracting inward investment into the UK. Our company intends to grow and create new science jobs in advanced healthcare technology and in delivering our projects, we will also create work for UK contract research organisations. Ultimately, we expect the products to benefit patients worldwide, reduce healthcare costs, and generate revenue for UK businesses.

"NanOptima has a mission to improve efficacy and safety of ophthalmic medications by improving delivery of APIs. As populations grow older, more and more people need treatment for sight-threatening eye conditions. ""The lifetime risk, of sight loss or blindness requiring intervention or treatment, is estimated to be: nearly **1 in 5 people for permanent sight loss or blindness**; and over 1 in 3 people for any sight loss or blindness. More than two million people in the UK live with sight loss that is severe enough to have a significant impact on their daily lives. £28.1 billion was the cost to the UK of sight loss in the adult population in 2013\. This includes a direct healthcare cost estimated to be £3 billion each year"" (RNIB, 2017). Current treatment methods either carry significant risk, or do not work effectively. Eye drops are the most common way of delivering medications for glaucoma and inflammation, but lose effectiveness because \>90% of the drops are washed away upon blinking, and there is a 30% non-compliance rate, which can lead to blindness. NanOptima is developing advanced soft, transparent gels to retain medicines on the eye surface for longer, and nanoparticles to increase penetration of medications into the eye. Conditions near the back of the eye, especially macular degeneration and the complications of diabetes (two of the leading causes of blindness, impacting 570,000 people in the UK), must be treated with injections, which are expensive, risky, and very unpleasant for patients. NanOptima will use our novel gel technology to create depots that can be injected via a very fine needle, and deliver treatments for months at a time, so that current injection regimes can be made less frequent and invasive. We will also explore whether nanotechnology eye drops can extend the intervals between injections. NanOptima, PeptigelDesign Technologies, and Tecrea, are three small UK research companies joining their complementary forces to improve the experiences of patients with eye problems, and to build the UK science base in pharmaceuticals for treating eye diseases. Our work will be in close collaboration with leading academic and clinical ophthalmic experts at Ulster University, with senior industry advisors."