In June 2022 the Department of Ophthalmology at the University Hospital Cologne welcomed Professor Ilva Rupenthal as a Humboldt fellow. Prof. Rupenthal is the Director of the Buchanan Ocular Therapeutics Unit at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and a long-standing collaborating partner.
Together with the scientists at the Department of Ophthalmology, she will develop and test new therapeutics for the treatment of ocular surface diseases, in particular for dry eye and ocular GvHD. This will include initial investigations into the involvement of the NLRP3 inflammasome in ocular GvHD before testing the preclinical efficacy of a preservative-free eye drop, based on an inflammasome blocker suspended in a biocompatible non-aqueous vehicle, in a mouse model of GvHD.
The Humboldt Foundation will finance two further research stays for Ilva Rupenthal over the next three years.
