We are happy to announce that the joint-article submitted by the entire MERLIN consortium has been published in Scientific Reports last week.

This paper covers more than 3 years of collaborative work for developing a novel retinal imaging instrument. As a peer-reviewed publication, it establishes the multi-modal and multi-scale retinal imaging capabilities of the Merlin device, and in particular, the applicability of cellular-level OCT imaging in clinical settings.

 

 

The H2020 MERLIN project is now closed, but the adventure still continues.

Imagine Eyes is further advancing the imaging device towards commercialization. Meanwhile, ophthalmologists at Paris Quinze-Vingts Hospital and Copenhagen Rigshospitalet implement MERLIN’s technology as a tool for accelerating the development of new therapies for sight-threatening retinal diseases. First clinical case reports were presented at ARVO 2022 (see previous news).

 

Article reference: Shirazi, M. F., Andilla, J., Lefaudeux, N. et al. (2022). Multi-modal and multi-scale clinical retinal imaging system with pupil and retinal tracking. Scientific Reports, 12(1), 9577. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13631-1

At the ARVO 2022 annual meeting, in Denver on May 2nd, Dr Kiyoko Gocho presented the first results of the pilot clinical investigation in the MERLIN project.

During the lecture, she showed extraordinary images that provided multimodal information on the retina at different scales, including three-dimensional cellular-resolution images, all acquired with the MERLIN device. The series of clinical cases covered a wide range of pathologies – inherited retinal diseases, AMD, diabetic retinopathy, serous detachment, arterial hypertension – demonstrating the applicability of the imaging device to clinical settings.

Pilot investigation of multimodal and multiscale retinal imaging technology developed by a trans-European multidisciplinary consortium

Kiyoko Gocho, INSERM and Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital

May 2, 2022, in Session : Advances in high resolution imaging

The replay is available until June 30, 2022 on the virtual ARVO 2022 platform.

We are happy to announce the successful completion of our Horizon 2020 MERLIN project. We received a very positive evaluation from the European Commission last week after presenting the technical and clinical results of the new retinal imaging technology developed by MERLIN’s partners.

We take this opportunity to thank our advisors throughout the world for their extremely valuable contributions over the last 4 years. We are also grateful to the European Commission for supporting MERLIN and to reviewers for their constructive feedback.

The project has delivered retinal imaging prototypes that are now being tested at two medical centers. These systems combine several technologies, including optical coherence tomography OCT) and adaptive optics (AO), to visualize the retina at different scales with multiple modalities. For the first time, doctors can directly examine cells in three dimensions at the back of the eye.

After MERLIN, the adventure continues.

Imagine Eyes is further advancing the imaging device towards commercialization. Meanwhile, for ophthalmologists at Paris Quinze-Vingts Hospital and Copenhagen Rigshospitalet, the next step is to implement MERLIN’s technology as a tool for accelerating the development of new therapies for sight-threatening retinal diseases.

Beyond ophthalmology, the SHIVA project is poised to explore applications in neurology. To do so, SHIVA partners will further develop MERLIN’s-OCT angiography technology and investigate retinal microcirculation in dementia and cognitive decline with an unprecedented level of detail. The goal is to better prevent and treat major causes of neurological disability.

 

MERLIN clincial protoypes were installed at Quinze-Vingts National Eye Hospital in Paris in December 2020, and Rigshopitaltet in Copenhagen in January 2021. Since then, clinicians have used it to examine the back of the eye of 177 subjects.

The performance of the device, in terms of image quality and ergonomy, was confirmed on 35 healthy volunteers as well as 142 patients with various pathologies : age-related macular degeneration, inherited retinal diseases, diabetes, hypertension, and other retinal diseases.

In these patients, MERLIN images provided unprecedented details of retinal changes – at the level of single photoreceptor cells and capillary blood vessels.

 

Merlin images from a patient with diabetes, having a solitary aneurism (blue arrow). Large field images (top) enable to locate the AO-SLO images (bottom) that show details of the changes in capillary vessels and underlying photoreceptor cells. Courtesy of Rigshospitalet, Denmark.

 

Merlin images from a patient with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), dry type. Large field OCT show the atrophic retina (bright parts). AO-SLO and AO-OCT images reveal microscopic details of the border of the atrophy. Courtesy of Quinze-Vingts Hospital, France.