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A very valued member of reNEW’s Scientific Advisory Committee, Professor Pete Coffey, has passed away. Professor Coffey, DPhil was a Theme Lead of Development, Ageing and Disease at University College London’s Institute of Ophthalmology and the Co-Executive Director of Translation at UC Santa Barbara’s Center for Stem Cell Biology and Engineering.
He is the principal author and co-author of several landmark papers demonstrating the use of human cells to halt visual deterioration in models of age-related macular degeneration. His achievements include the launch of the London Project to Cure Blindness, which aims to develop a stem cell therapy for most of all types of age-related macular degeneration, seminal work on retinal transplantation (as described by Debrossy & Dunnett, Nature Neuroscience 2001).
Professor Coffey has received many honors and awards, including the prestigious Estelle Doheny Living Tribute Award in 2009, Retinitis Pigmentosa International’s Vision Award in 2009, the CIRM Leadership Award in 2010, and the New York Stem Cell Foundation Roberston Prize in 2011.
In 2018, Pete Coffey and his team presented the clinical results of two patients which had received implants of an engineered patch with stem cell derived retinal pigment epithelium cells into the back of the eye. The results showed clear visual improvements in both patients. This landmark study, published in Nature Biotechnology, represented the first convincing clinical evidence of efficacy obtained from a transplanted pluripotent stem cell product. This work demonstrated that regenerative medicine is feasible and could result in the sustained recovery of vision in patients with severe vision loss from Macular Degeneration – a breakthrough validating the stem cell treatment paradigm.
Professor Coffey had been battling long term illness for a while and sadly suddenly passed away last week. He was recently honored by a one-minute silence at the British Society for Cell and Gene Therapy to mark his passing.
