About Us
Who We Are
Treatments the many millions suffering from blood vessel abnormalities in diseases such as diabetic retinopathy or age-related macular degeneration require injections directly into the eye.
Unfortunately, the injections do not treat the underlying disease and patients still show progressive loss of vision. For many of the other forms of blinding eye disease there are currently no treatments.
Skyran Biologics has better options: we are developing a group of eyedrops that can treat a number of blinding eye diseases.
Skyran Biologics is a research and development company that is currently advancing an ophthalmic therapeutics platform to combat a number of important ocular diseases.
The company was originally founded to translate findings of Dr. Joyce Tombran-Tink, made initially at NEI, then at Yale and more recently at Penn State College of Medicine, into commercial products that can be made available to a broad patient population.
In 2013 Dr. Tombran-Tink competed for, and won, an award from the Science Center in Philadelhia (QED program) to develop effective mimetics of PEDF, a potent neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory and anti-angiogenic molecule discovered by Dr. Tombran-Tink in 1991. The Science Center is a non-profit organization sponsored by multiple academic and medical systems in Pennsylvania. Skyran joined the Phase I ventures (P1V) scheme of the Science Center and Skyran Biologics was launched as a Delaware corporation in 2017 with Drs. Tombran-Tink and Barnstable as founders. Skyran worked with Penn State University to obtain a patent for a series of functionally active PEDF peptide mimetics.
The Skyran team successfully competed for an NIH STTR phase 1 grant to develop the PEDF mimetics and has been able to convert this into a phase II STTR grant.
More recently the Skyran team has begun to exploit epigenetic modifiers as therapeutic agents to combat photoreceptor degenerative diseases. Based on Dr. Barnstable’s published work, a patent application on epigenetic modifiers has been submitted through Penn State University. Skyran has also successfully obtain a Phase I STTR NIH grant to begin the commercial development of these compounds.
With our expanding need for greater expertise in ocular pharmaceutics Dr. Ji- Ye Wei joined as president of Skyran Biologics. Dr. Tombran-Tink has also taken on the role of Chief Scientific Officer of Skyran.
Meet the Skyran Team
Dr. Joyce Tombran-Tink
Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Skyran Biologics, Inc.
Bio
Dr. Tombran-Tink joined Penn State College of Medicine as a Professor in the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences and Ophthalmology in 2007. She now serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Skyran Biologics.
Dr. Tombran-Tin received her PhD in cell and molecular biology at the University of Southern California and was awarded the Fight For Sight Citation Award for the discovery of Pigment Epithelial Derived Factor (PEDF), a neurotrophic factor in the eye, by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). She was subsequently awarded a National Research Council Fellowship and a Staff Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health where she served for 7 years. She also served on the faculty of the Children’s National Medical Center, George Washington University, University of Missouri, and Yale University. She is a gold Fellow of ARVO and has served as a member of the Board of Governors for the ARVO Foundation for the past six years.
Dr. Tombran-Tink has served as a consultant for the Collaborative Research and Development Foundation Global for the past twenty-one years. She has published over 90 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, served as co-Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Ocular Biology Diseases and Informatics, as co-editor for a series of eight textbooks in Ophthalmology, and on the editorial boards of several research journals. Dr. Tombran-Tink is an inventor on multiple patents for the use of PEDF and generation of PEDF peptide mimetics for neurodegenerative diseases including diabetic retinopathy.
Dr. Colin Barnstable
Founder, Skyran Biologics, Inc.
Bio
Dr. Barnstable joined Penn State College of Medicine as Professor and Chair of the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences. He also serves as Research Director of the Penn State Hershey Eye Center.
He received his B.A. in biochemistry and his D.Phil. in genetics from the University of Oxford and then moved to Harvard as a postdoctoral fellow for 2 years. After three years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School he spent five years as a faculty member of the Rockefeller University. From 1988 to 2006 he was a faculty member of the Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and of Neurobiology, at Yale University School of Medicine, and Research Director of the Yale Eye Center. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous neuroscience and eye research journals and a variety of NIH study sections. Dr. Barnstable has published over 210 articles and reviews and is co-editor (with Dr. Tombran-Tink) of a series of textbooks on Ophthalmology.
Dr. Ji-Ye Wei
President, Skyran Biologics, Inc.
Bio
Dr Jay Ji-Ye Wei has more than 25 years of experience in retinal biology studies, including 14 years industry experience and 12 years academic experience in various retinal programs.
He was the program director of SIPRAD in Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) and Institute of Molecular Cell Biology (IMCB), A*STAR, Singapore. Dr. Wei was responsible for managing a three year, 20 million Singapore dollars program in retinal angiogenic diseases, a team of clinicians, scientists, research fellows, laboratory and clinical staff. His main research interests are aged-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
He was Principal Scientist of Department of Biological Sciences, Allergan, California. Prior to Allergan, Dr Wei was scientific leader of Intrexon Ophthalmic Division, Maryland. Dr Wei also worked at Alcon Laboratories, Fort Worth, Texas for 10 years and Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research (NIBR) for 2 years as a Senior Scientist of Degenerative Diseases and Retinopathy program.
He received his medical training from Binzhou Medical University, Shandong Province, China, then attained his master degree in physiology from Xi’an Jiaotong University Medical Center, and a PhD in retinal neuroscience from Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China.
After graduation, he moved to United States to complete his postdoctoral training in retinal neurobiology from Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale University School of Medicine. From 1998 to 2001, he was a research associate scientist (research faculty) in the same department at Yale. He received the Novartis NIBR Spotlight Award in 2012
Bio
Dr. Tombran-Tink joined Penn State College of Medicine as a Professor in the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences and Ophthalmology in 2007. She now serves as Chief Scientific Officer of Skyran Biologics.
Dr. Tombran-Tin received her PhD in cell and molecular biology at the University of Southern California and was awarded the Fight For Sight Citation Award for the discovery of Pigment Epithelial Derived Factor (PEDF), a neurotrophic factor in the eye, by the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). She was subsequently awarded a National Research Council Fellowship and a Staff Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health where she served for 7 years. She also served on the faculty of the Children’s National Medical Center, George Washington University, University of Missouri, and Yale University. She is a gold Fellow of ARVO and has served as a member of the Board of Governors for the ARVO Foundation for the past six years.
Dr. Tombran-Tink has served as a consultant for the Collaborative Research and Development Foundation Global for the past twenty-one years. She has published over 90 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, served as co-Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Ocular Biology Diseases and Informatics, as co-editor for a series of eight textbooks in Ophthalmology, and on the editorial boards of several research journals. Dr. Tombran-Tink is an inventor on multiple patents for the use of PEDF and generation of PEDF peptide mimetics for neurodegenerative diseases including diabetic retinopathy.
Bio
Dr. Barnstable joined Penn State College of Medicine as Professor and Chair of the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences. He also serves as Research Director of the Penn State Hershey Eye Center.
He received his B.A. in biochemistry and his D.Phil. in genetics from the University of Oxford and then moved to Harvard as a postdoctoral fellow for 2 years. After three years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School he spent five years as a faculty member of the Rockefeller University. From 1988 to 2006 he was a faculty member of the Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, and of Neurobiology, at Yale University School of Medicine, and Research Director of the Yale Eye Center. He has served on the editorial boards of numerous neuroscience and eye research journals and a variety of NIH study sections. Dr. Barnstable has published over 210 articles and reviews and is co-editor (with Dr. Tombran-Tink) of a series of textbooks on Ophthalmology.
Bio
Dr Jay Ji-Ye Wei has more than 25 years of experience in retinal biology studies, including 14 years industry experience and 12 years academic experience in various retinal programs.
He was the program director of SIPRAD in Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI) and Institute of Molecular Cell Biology (IMCB), A*STAR, Singapore. Dr. Wei was responsible for managing a three year, 20 million Singapore dollars program in retinal angiogenic diseases, a team of clinicians, scientists, research fellows, laboratory and clinical staff. His main research interests are aged-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.
He was Principal Scientist of Department of Biological Sciences, Allergan, California. Prior to Allergan, Dr Wei was scientific leader of Intrexon Ophthalmic Division, Maryland. Dr Wei also worked at Alcon Laboratories, Fort Worth, Texas for 10 years and Novartis Institute of Biomedical Research (NIBR) for 2 years as a Senior Scientist of Degenerative Diseases and Retinopathy program.
He received his medical training from Binzhou Medical University, Shandong Province, China, then attained his master degree in physiology from Xi’an Jiaotong University Medical Center, and a PhD in retinal neuroscience from Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai, China.
After graduation, he moved to United States to complete his postdoctoral training in retinal neurobiology from Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science, Yale University School of Medicine. From 1998 to 2001, he was a research associate scientist (research faculty) in the same department at Yale. He received the Novartis NIBR Spotlight Award in 2012