Science

Engineering light-responsive materials for precise retinal activation.

NanoFlash combines computational modelling, photophysics and bioengineering to design nanoactuators with controlled optical properties, biological targeting and interactions with retinal cells.
An optical laboratory setup illuminated by red light.
A microscopy image supplied for NanoFlash retinal cell research.

Targeting the retinal cells that remain.

In Retinitis Pigmentosa and atrophic age-related macular degeneration, photoreceptor loss disrupts the flow of visual information into the retina’s surviving processing network.

NanoFlash focuses on rod and cone ON bipolar cells, which share a surface receptor, mGluR6. By targeting this receptor, the light-responsive nanoactuators can be positioned close to these cells, triggering neuronal activity.

Our approach

Build the particle around a precise biological target.

Materials design, photophysics and retinal biology inform one another as NanoFlash develops and tests each nanoactuator candidate.

Design

Use computational modelling and experiments to select promising polymers and nanostructure designs.

Build

Produce soft nanoactuators and characterise how they absorb light, separate charges and interact with biological environments.

Target

Functionalise their surface to bind selectively to mGluR6 receptors on ON bipolar cells.

Measure

Test whether selected nanoactuators produce measurable neuronal responses across increasingly complex retinal models.
An electron microscopy image of spherical nanoparticles.

What is different

A gene-free approach built around precise cell targeting.

NanoFlash does not aim to replace lost photoreceptors or modify a patient's genes. Instead, it is developing injectable, light-responsive nanoactuators designed to work with retinal circuitry that remains.

The targeting step is key. By binding to the mGluR6 receptor on ON bipolar cells, NanoFlash aims to activate a specific part of the retinal pathway rather than stimulating the inner retina broadly.

Validation pipeline

Building evidence across increasingly complex models.

Each stage addresses different questions about targeting, activity and safety before selected candidates progress through the validation pipeline.

In vitro

Cells and retinal organoids

Test whether nanoactuators reach their intended target, remain biocompatible and produce measurable responses to light, including in human retinal organoids.

Ex vivo

Retinal explants

Measure how retinal tissue responds to light and whether ON/OFF signaling can be reactivated in the absence of functional photoreceptors.

In vivo

Rodent models

Evaluate a selected nanoactuator in models of retinal degeneration, studying retinal activation, visual function, safety and how the particles behave after injection.