As part of a national “moonshot” to cure blindness, researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus will receive as much as $46 million in federal funding over the next five years to pursue a first-of-its-kind full eye transplantation. “This is no easy undertaking, but I believe we can achieve this together,” said Dr. Kia Washington, the lead researcher for the University of Colorado-led team, during a press conference Monday. “And in fact I’ve never been more hopeful that a cure for blindness is within reach.” The CU team was one of four in the United States that received funding awards from the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health , or ARPA-H. The CU-based group will focus on achieving the first-ever vision-restoring eye transplant by using “novel stem cell and bioelectronic technologies,” according to a news release announcing the funding. The work will be interdisciplinary, Washington and others said, and will link together researchers at institutions across the country. The four teams that received the funding will work alongside each other on distinct approaches, though officials said the teams would likely collaborate and eventually may merge depending on which research avenues show the most promise toward achieving the ultimate goal of transplanting an eye and curing blindness. Dr. Calvin Roberts, who will oversee the broader project for ARPA-H, said the agency wanted to take multiple “shots on goal” to ensure progress. “In the broader picture, achieving this would be probably the most monumental task in medicine within the last several decades,” said Dr. Daniel Pelaez of the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which also received ARPA-H funding. Pelaez is the lead investigator for that team, which has pursued new procedures to successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors, amid other research. He told The Denver Post that only four organ systems have not been successfully transplanted: the inner ear, the brain, the spinal cord and the eye. All four are part of the central nervous system, which does not repair itself when damaged. If researchers can successfully transplant the human eye and restore vision to the patient, it might help unlock deeper discoveries about repairing damage to the brain and spine, Pelaez said, as well as addressing hearing loss. To succeed, researchers must successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors and then successfully connect and repair the optical nerve, which takes information from the eye and tells the brain what the eye sees. A team at New York University performed a full eye transplant on a human patient in November 2023, though the procedure — while a “remarkable achievement,” Pelaez said — did not restore the patient’s vision. It was also part of a partial face transplant; other approaches pursued via the ARPA-H funding will involve eye-specific transplants. Washington, the lead CU researcher, said she and her colleagues have already completed the eye transplant procedure — albeit without vision restoration — in rats. The CU team will next work on large animals to advance “optic nerve regenerative strategies,” the school said, as well as to study immunosuppression, which is critical to ensuring that patients’ immune systems don’t reject a donated organ. The goal is to eventually advance to human trials. Pelaez and his colleagues have completed their eye-removal procedure in cadavers, he said, and they’ve also studied regeneration in several animals that are capable of regenerating parts of their eyes, like salamanders or zebra fish. His team’s funding will focus in part on a life-support machine for the eye to keep it healthy and viable during the removal process. InGel Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based Harvard spinoff and the lead of a third team, will pursue research on 3-D printed technology and “micro-tunneled scaffolds” that carry certain types of stem cells as part of a focus on optical nerve regeneration and repair, ARPA-H said. ARPH-A, created two years ago, will oversee the teams’ work. Researchers at 52 institutions nationwide will also contribute to the teams. The CU-led group will include researchers from the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as from the National Eye Institute . The teams will simultaneously compete and collaborate: Pelaez said his team has communicated with researchers at CU and at Stanford, another award recipient, about their eye-removal research. The total funding available for the teams is $125 million, ARPA-H officials said Monday, and it will be distributed in phases, in part dependent on teams’ success. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver in Congress, acknowledged the recent election results at the press conference Monday and pledged to continue fighting to preserve ARPA-H’s funding under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. The effort to cure blindness, Washington joked, was “biblical” in its enormity — a reference to the Bible story in which Jesus cures a blind man. She and others also likened it to a moonshot, meaning the effort to successfully put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon nearly 50 years ago. If curing blindness is similar to landing on the moon, then the space shuttle has already left the launchpad, Washington said. “We have launched,” she said, “and we are on our trajectory.”
DETROIT (AP) — Starting in September of 2027, all new passenger vehicles in the U.S. will have to sound a warning if rear-seat passengers don't buckle up. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday that it finalized the rule, which also requires enhanced warnings when front seat belts aren't fastened. The agency estimates that the new rule will save 50 lives per year and prevent 500 injuries when fully in effect, according to a statement. The new rule will apply to passenger cars, trucks, buses except for school buses, and multipurpose vehicles weighing up to 10,000 pounds. Before the rule, seat belt warnings were required only for the driver's seat. Under the new rule, outboard front-seat passengers also must get a warning if they don't fasten their belts. Front-center seats will not get a warning because NHTSA found that it wouldn't be cost effective. The agency said most vehicles already have warnings for the outboard passenger seats. The rule also lengthens the duration of audio and visual warnings for the driver's seat. The front-seat rules are effective starting Sept. 1 of 2026. Rear passengers consistently use seat belts at a lower rate than front passengers, the agency says. In 2022, front belt use was just under 92%, while rear use dropped to about 82%. About half of automobile passengers who died in crashes two years ago weren’t wearing belts, according to NHTSA data. The seat belt rule is the second significant regulation to come from NHTSA in the past two months. In November the agency bolstered its five-star auto safety ratings to include driver assistance technologies and pedestrian protection. Safety advocates want the Department of Transportation, which includes NHTSA, to finish several more rules before the end of the Biden administration, because President-elect Donald Trump has said he’s against new government regulations. Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, urged the department to approve automatic emergency braking for heavy trucks and technology to prevent impaired driving.
A first-of-its-kind offering, Bboxx Protect, offers extensive protection to electric motorbike users and significant savings of over 40%. The electric motorcycle sector in East Africa is starting to flourish. Kenya is the largest market for motorcycles, with over 2 million internal combustion motorcycles on the road, and we are now seeing some significant traction in the market. As recently reported , “In 2023, there were 70,691 motorcycles sold in Kenya. 2,557 of these were electric. That means 3.6% of motorcycles sold in 2023 in Kenya were electric. That is almost 4%! Soon the market share will reach the critical 5% threshold, which is generally viewed as the tipping point indicating the start of mass adoption. The share of electric motorcycles rose to 3.6% in 2023 from 2.8% in 2022 and 0.5% in 2021.” We have another exciting update today. This time from Rwanda! There are now over 6,050 electric motorcycles in Rwanda. Ampersand leads the way with over 3,850 motorcycles in Rwanda, Spiro now has over 1,800 in Rwanda, and they are followed by REM, SAFI, and Amazi. There are around 150,000 motorcycles in Rwanda’s entire fleet of motorcycles, meaning that 4% of all the motorcycles in Rwanda are now electric, and it’s about to get even better! From January 1, 2025, only electric motorcycles can be registered in Rwanda. No more new registrations of internal combustion engine motorcycles will be allowed in the country. To help catalyse adoption of electric motorcycles and encourage riders to switch from their old fossil-fueled motorcycles to newer electric motorcycles, Bboxx, the data-driven super platform, is introducing a transformative insurance product, Bboxx Protect, offering comprehensive and affordable coverage for electric motorbike riders in Rwanda . Bboxx Protect, Bboxx’s first insurance product, is set to transform the Rwandan insurance landscape by providing financial security previously out of reach for many motorbike users. Created in collaboration with Radiant Yacu, its unique data-backed PAYGo (pay-as-you-go) model enables pricing over 40% lower than the average market rate for comprehensive insurance, making it an affordable option for motorbike owners who typically rely only on third-party coverage. Bboxx says this innovation saves riders up to 44% on insurance costs per year, allowing them to invest in other essential aspects of their lives, such as household welfare and family support. Bboxx says the new Bboxx Protect marks a crucial step in addressing Rwanda’s low insurance penetration, which currently stands at less than 1%, by making insurance both accessible and affordable for more people. Designed exclusively for electric motorcycles, the product provides a further incentive for riders to switch from traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) bikes, de-risking the EV transition. Anthony Osijo, Bboxx CEO, said: “With the launch of Bboxx Protect, we are doubling down on our commitment to serving existing markets while making affordable, comprehensive insurance accessible to motorbike riders who have long been underserved. By reducing financial risk and offering greater security, we are empowering thousands of customers to protect their livelihoods while contributing to a cleaner, more sustainable future.” Ovia K. Tuhairwe, Radiant Yacu Insurance CEO, said: “Through our strategic partnership with Bboxx, we are introducing a pioneering insurance solution that equips motorbike riders with the financial protection needed to confidently transition to electric vehicles. By offering affordable, comprehensive coverage tailored to EVs, we are not only enabling a safer and greener future, but also addressing Rwanda’s low insurance penetration. This collaboration will make insurance more accessible to underserved communities, promoting financial inclusion and driving long-term economic growth across the country.” Bboxx Protect offers exclusive coverage for Bboxx Ride customers, including protection against material damage, fire, third-party liabilities, life insurance, and total permanent disability. The initial rollout targets 1,500 customers, with the potential to impact the 150,000 motorbike riders across the country who currently use simple third-party insurance coverage. Alongside this innovative new product, Bboxx is pioneering a new benchmark for the EV and insurance sectors by leveraging smart data monitoring and Bboxx Protect to predict and prevent road accidents. This technology reduces the likelihood of accidents, providing riders with a safer, more reliable experience. Mitigating risks through real-time insights also presents a significant advantage for insurers given the improved risk management. As the market share of electric motorcycles starts to grow in East Africa, it is great to see EV-focused products being introduced such as this new Bboxx Protect. 2024 appears to be the year that electric motorcycle firms in East Africa really started to scale. These companies are setting up to ramp up production again in 2025. It looks like 2025 is going to be even better. Images courtesy of Bboxx CleanTechnica's Comment Policy LinkedIn WhatsApp Facebook Bluesky Email Reddit
Colgate-Palmolive Co. stock underperforms Thursday when compared to competitors despite daily gainsAs part of a national “moonshot” to cure blindness, researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus will receive as much as $46 million in federal funding over the next five years to pursue a first-of-its-kind full eye transplantation. “This is no easy undertaking, but I believe we can achieve this together,” said Dr. Kia Washington, the lead researcher for the University of Colorado-led team, during a press conference Monday. “And in fact I’ve never been more hopeful that a cure for blindness is within reach.” The CU team was one of four in the United States that received funding awards from the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health , or ARPA-H. The CU-based group will focus on achieving the first-ever vision-restoring eye transplant by using “novel stem cell and bioelectronic technologies,” according to a news release announcing the funding. The work will be interdisciplinary, Washington and others said, and will link together researchers at institutions across the country. The four teams that received the funding will work alongside each other on distinct approaches, though officials said the teams would likely collaborate and eventually may merge depending on which research avenues show the most promise toward achieving the ultimate goal of transplanting an eye and curing blindness. Dr. Calvin Roberts, who will oversee the broader project for ARPA-H, said the agency wanted to take multiple “shots on goal” to ensure progress. “In the broader picture, achieving this would be probably the most monumental task in medicine within the last several decades,” said Dr. Daniel Pelaez of the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which also received ARPA-H funding. Pelaez is the lead investigator for that team, which has pursued new procedures to successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors, amid other research. He told The Denver Post that only four organ systems have not been successfully transplanted: the inner ear, the brain, the spinal cord and the eye. All four are part of the central nervous system, which does not repair itself when damaged. If researchers can successfully transplant the human eye and restore vision to the patient, it might help unlock deeper discoveries about repairing damage to the brain and spine, Pelaez said, as well as addressing hearing loss. To succeed, researchers must successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors and then successfully connect and repair the optical nerve, which takes information from the eye and tells the brain what the eye sees. A team at New York University performed a full eye transplant on a human patient in November 2023, though the procedure — while a “remarkable achievement,” Pelaez said — did not restore the patient’s vision. It was also part of a partial face transplant; other approaches pursued via the ARPA-H funding will involve eye-specific transplants. Washington, the lead CU researcher, said she and her colleagues have already completed the eye transplant procedure — albeit without vision restoration — in rats. The CU team will next work on large animals to advance “optic nerve regenerative strategies,” the school said, as well as to study immunosuppression, which is critical to ensuring that patients’ immune systems don’t reject a donated organ. The goal is to eventually advance to human trials. Pelaez and his colleagues have completed their eye-removal procedure in cadavers, he said, and they’ve also studied regeneration in several animals that are capable of regenerating parts of their eyes, like salamanders or zebra fish. His team’s funding will focus in part on a life-support machine for the eye to keep it healthy and viable during the removal process. InGel Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based Harvard spinoff and the lead of a third team, will pursue research on 3-D printed technology and “micro-tunneled scaffolds” that carry certain types of stem cells as part of a focus on optical nerve regeneration and repair, ARPA-H said. ARPH-A, created two years ago, will oversee the teams’ work. Researchers at 52 institutions nationwide will also contribute to the teams. The CU-led group will include researchers from the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as from the National Eye Institute . The teams will simultaneously compete and collaborate: Pelaez said his team has communicated with researchers at CU and at Stanford, another award recipient, about their eye-removal research. The total funding available for the teams is $125 million, ARPA-H officials said Monday, and it will be distributed in phases, in part dependent on teams’ success. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver in Congress, acknowledged the recent election results at the press conference Monday and pledged to continue fighting to preserve ARPA-H’s funding under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. The effort to cure blindness, Washington joked, was “biblical” in its enormity — a reference to the Bible story in which Jesus cures a blind man. She and others also likened it to a moonshot, meaning the effort to successfully put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon nearly 50 years ago. If curing blindness is similar to landing on the moon, then the space shuttle has already left the launchpad, Washington said. “We have launched,” she said, “and we are on our trajectory.”Researchers launch “moonshot” to cure blindness through eye transplants
Researchers launch “moonshot” to cure blindness through eye transplants3 judges apply for open associate justice spot on Nebraska Supreme Court