The Photon Therapeutics team at the 2024 London Vet Show at the end of last year with co-founder, Auckland-based ophthalmologist Dr Simon Dean (third from right)

An award-winning, New Zealand-designed handheld device to destroy keratitis-causing microbes within seconds is heading to human trials in Auckland this year.

Designed by Kiwi ophthalmologist and University of Auckland honorary senior lecturer Dr Simon Dean, the PhotonUVC device was commercially launched to the UK veterinary market in November last year at the London Vet Show. This was a milestone achievement for its parent company, Photon Therapeutics, which originated nearly 15 years ago in a kitchen in Birmingham, England, when Dr Dean was studying collagen cross-linking (CXL) as a possible way to treat infections.

Winner of the 2020 American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery Winning Pitch Challenge, the device uses UVC (ultraviolet light with wavelengths between 200–280nm) to treat bacterial, viral and fungal corneal infections. Since then, the PhotonUVC device has been put through its safety and efficacy paces by Dr Dean’s partner, Professor Jennifer Craig, head of the Ocular Surface Laboratory at Auckland University, and her co-supervisor Dr Sanjay Marasini, who gained his PhD for research in this area.

Given the product’s success in the UK vet market, Photon Therapeutics is planning to expand its availability to vets in other markets, with a New Zealand trial planned for later this year in Tauranga and a clinical animal trial underway at the Royal Veterinary College in London. The Tauranga trial will run parallel to the first human trials that will be funded by the company and run by Prof Craig and Dr Dean, who is also Photon’s chief scientific officer, at the University of Auckland.

Dr Dean said 2025 is a big year for the company: “It’s super exciting to get this out to veterinarians and in parallel keep pushing to get the technology into optometry and ophthalmology clinics to help reduce the risk of visual compromise in patients with presumed corneal infections from any cause – bacterial, viral, fungal or Acanthamoeba.”

In trials to date, as little as five seconds has treated infections including pseudomonas, antibiotic-resistant pseudomonas, many other bacteria and fungi, said Dr Dean. There are also promising pilot data with viruses, including the herpes simplex virus, while an Acanthamoeba trial is planned in Australia this year, he said. “Jennifer has been instrumental in ensuring the studies are rigorous and robust and Sanjay has conducted the trials – putting Auckland on the map for ophthalmic UVC research.”