Ray Therapeutics grew out of foundational academic work in optogenetics, built on the founding insight that light-sensitive proteins could be engineered to make retinas respond to light after their photoreceptors degenerate. It develops gene therapies that reprogram surviving inner retinal cells to sense light, pursuing a first program aimed at retinal ganglion cells for inherited retinal disease and a second targeting retinal bipolar cells for macula diseases.
Its programs are designed to work regardless of the underlying genetic cause, restoring visual function by reprogramming targeted retinal cells instead of merely slowing disease progression, against a field of mutation-specific gene replacement and rival optogenetic approaches, some paired with an external visual-aid device. Delivered in a single intravitreal injection with no external hardware, the therapies address patients with advanced vision loss across both rare inherited retinal disease and the larger population with macula disease.
