Photoswitch Biosciences Inc was formed in order to develop and commercialize applications of photoswitch molecules; small molecules designed to photo-modulate the activity of target signaling proteins. With these molecules one color turns the protein ON; a different color turns it OFF. Photoswitches have been shown to restore light sensitivity to the retina in mouse models of Retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited, blinding disease that affects approximately 100,000 people in the US; there are no approved treatments. Persons with RP lose the light-sensitive rods and cones at the back of the eye. The goal of the firm would be to render the still healthy neural cells of the retina to be light sensitive. Those photoswitched retinal cells would assume the role of the degenerated photoreceptors. Photoswitches have been shown to restore light sensitivity to the retina in mouse models of RP.
