The project MOON aims at improving the diagnosis of major ophthalmic and neurodegenerative diseases through the development of disruptive optical technology.

MOON - Multimodal Optical Diagnosis of Ocular and Neurodegenerative Disease

The novel diagnostic platform combines the strength of complementary modalities, being Optical Coherence Tomography, Fluorescence Imaging, and Raman Spectroscopy.

MOON includes a validation of the multimodal diagnostic system in a clinical setting focusing on age-related macula degeneration and Alzheimer’s disease as surrogates for other major diseases affecting the human eye and the brain.

The eye serves as window to the brain, as the retinal neural tissue is equally affected by major neurodegenerative diseases as the brain tissue itself. Early signs of disease may therefore be diagnosed at an early state in a fully objective manner. This would have a huge societal impact on the quality of life of patients and their caretakers as well as on the national healthcare systems themselves.

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 732969 (MOON). It is an initiative of the Photonics Public Private Partnership. www.photonics21.org 

News  

• MOON is in the news again-see our press release "Eye scanner targets neurodegenerative diseases"

 

• On February 28 the project MOON came to its end. This page will stay alive in order to post the final results obtained with the multimodal Raman system as well as final press releases. Please stay tuned and check our final project presentation as well as our last flyer!


• We are happy to announce clearance by the Austrian national authorities (BASG) to start with the study on multimodal molecular retinal diagnostics with the combined Raman and OCT/OCTA platform. The system complies with the new Medical Device Regulations that came into force in May 26, 2021.
  
  
• MOON technology presented at the virtual Annual Symposium of the Association of Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) (May 1-7 2021); MUW leads a panel discussion on widefield OCT and OCT angiography with renowned international clinical experts in the field. 
  
  
• Listen to the recent Interview in "Deutschlandfunk" (25.2.2021) (only in German)
  
  
• January 2021: Read the press release of IPHT concerning the latest insights on Alzheimer screening via the retina
  
  
• September 2020: Important Milestone achievement: The MOON consortium shows that Raman spectroscopy has the potential to distinguish of Alzheimer diseased from healthy retinas  based on their spectral fingerprint. Check out the publication in ACS Chemical Neuroscience.
  
  
• Have a look at the new MOON project flyer
  
  
• The MOON project has been extended until October 2021!
  
  
• A new MOON publication is online in Neurophotonics showing the capability to image with OCT signs of Alzheimer's disease in the human brain (July 2020)
  
  
• January 2020: After a positive periodic review in Brussels the MOON consortium is looking forward to an exciting final project phase
  
  
• Listen to the Interview in "Deutschlandfunk" (19.12.2019) "Mit Laserlicht frühzeitig Alzheimer erkennen" (in German) 
  
  
• The MOON project flyer is available!
  
  
• An article in the October 2019 issue of Biophotonics entitled "Optics Peers through the Haze of Dementia" highlights the MOON project 
  
  
• The last Consortium Meeting at the IPHT Jena was collocated with a Workshop on “Optical and molecular sensitive imaging and sensing in medicine”. Prof. Dr. Michael Schmitt from Institute of Physical Chemistry, gave an enthusiastic introduction on optical and molecular sensitive imaging and sensing followed by a guided tour through the photonic research labs.
  
  
• August 2019: Important Milestone achievement: The MOON consortium shows in-vitro that Raman spectroscopy of human retina is possible under restricted conditions. Check out the publication in Neurophotonics!
  According to our Open Research Data Pilot, you can get access to the raw data in the publications to try your own processing algorithms. Read also our ORDP policy.
  
  
• Stay tuned with our latest blog post on LinkedIn!
  
  
• One of our Team members Matthias Salas Pauliac presented at the 6th internation OCT Angiography and Advances in OCT Congress his work on the roloe of OA-OCTA in the assessment of retinal capillary anatomy 
  
  
• MOON has a stage in the Futuris series of Euronews in which the latest news about leading scientific and technological research projects in Europe is shared. Doctors, patients and the MOON coordinator explain the aims and added values of the MOON project. See the item here

• MOON held its fifth consortium meeting in Vienna. Part of the consortium meeting was a workshop on Ophthalmic and Neurodenererative Diseases and Diagnostic Instrumentation by Prof. Dr. Andreas Pollreisz and Prof. Rainer Leitgeb. October 4-5, 2018

• The Midterm review in Brussels in July 2018 has been successfully passed – MOON starts with full enthusiasm into its second period

• MOON present at the Medial Imaging Cluster (MIC) Festival of the Medical University Vienna.
  Medial Imaging Cluster lnkd.in/epUMN48  June 14, 2018

• Successful third consortium meeting at TNO in Deft
  October 12-13, 2017
  
  
• Prof. Leo Schmetterer from the Singapore Eye Research Institute joins MOON as ethics advisory expert
  December 2016

• Kick-Off to MOON on December 19-20, 2016 
  
  
• Internal Press Release: Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT)
  published on Dec 15, 2016 (Annex 2) 

• Article in MedUnique 4/16 - MedUni Vienna Magazine 
  published on Dec 4, 2016, p.8-9