Avant Sciences

The problem

Every tamponade in use today asks the surgeon to accept a trade-off.

A retinal detachment is a blinding emergency. To let the retina heal, the surgeon fills the eye with something that presses it back into place. There are three choices, and each one fails in a different direction.

Gas (SF6, C3F8)

Floats up, so it cannot hold the bottom of the retina.

Inferior detachments are the ones most likely to re-detach, and gas does little for them. Patients spend days in strict head positioning to compensate.

Leaves on its own, but misses the inferior retina.

Heavy liquid (perfluoro-octane)

Sinks and flattens, but must be removed before the case ends.

Any residual droplet is a retained foreign body that can migrate under the retina or inflame the eye. Retention is one of the most feared complications of its use.

Works intraoperatively, but cannot stay.

Silicone oil

Supports the retina for months, at the cost of a second surgery.

Oil must be surgically removed later and carries its own long-term risks. It is often the fallback for the inferior detachments gas cannot treat.

Durable, but never leaves by itself.

How it works

One fluid that changes phase, so it does what all three do.

evapRET enters the eye as a heavy liquid and leaves it as a gas. The phase change happens at body temperature, inside the eye, with no further intervention.

Cross-section of an eye with an inferior retinal detachment

Inferior detachment

The retina has lifted at the bottom of the eye, where gas cannot reach.

Heavy liquid injected into the eye settles over the detached inferior retina

Liquid tamponade

A small volume is injected. Being heavier than water, it settles on the detachment and flattens it.

Bubbles rising as the liquid evaporates inside the eye

Evaporation begins

Over the following days the liquid vaporizes at body temperature, with no expansion step and no pressure spike.

A gas bubble at the top of the eye supporting the superior retina

Gas tamponade

The resulting bubble rises and supports the superior retina, exactly as a conventional gas would.

Clear

The gas diffuses out through the normal route. The retina stays attached. Nothing is left to remove.

Days 1 to 7heavy liquid, inferior support

Day 8 onwardgas bubble, superior support

By about week 8fully eliminated

Lead program

A first-in-class evaporative heavy liquid.

evapRET is a volatile fluorinated ether: optically clear, denser than water, immiscible with aqueous, and designed to evaporate under intraocular conditions. FDA regulates it as a Class III medical device. It is manufactured to high purity by flow chemistry.

Optically clear
Heavier than water
Evaporates at body temperature
Non-toxic in animal models
No expansion, no pressure spike
Low viscosity, easy to inject
Greater than 99.9% purity (GC-MS, NMR)
Proprietary synthesis and purification

Two intended uses: as an intraoperative heavy liquid that can never be retained, because any residual simply evaporates; and as an in-clinic injection for inferior detachments, giving temporary inferior support where a gas pneumatic retinopexy cannot, and potentially avoiding the operating room altogether for a subset of patients.

Fundus photographs of a rabbit eye at baseline and days 1, 3, 8, 15 and 56 after injection

In vivo: the liquid becomes gas, then disappears.

Dutch Belted rabbits, 8 microliters injected into one eye, balanced salt solution in the fellow eye. Followed with fundus photography, OCT, intraocular pressure and electroretinography through day 56.

Day 1: Liquid visible on the posterior pole in every treated eye
Day 8: Fully evaporated; a large gas bubble sits anteriorly
Day 56: Bubble nearly gone; pressures, ERGs and inferior OCT no different from controls

Presented at the Retina Society (2023), ARVO (2024) and ASRS (2024).

Evidence and intellectual property

A decade of bench and animal work, now protected in five jurisdictions.

Oct 2024

Winner, Eyecelerator Winning Pitch Challenge at AAO 2024

Selected at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting; the company’s first non-dilutive award.

EyeWorld coverage

Jul 2024

Evaporative Heavy Liquids for Retinal Tamponade

American Society of Retina Specialists annual meeting, Stockholm.

ASRS multimedia

May 2024

Evaporative heavy liquids for retinal tamponade: an in vivo study

Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology annual meeting, published in IOVS.

ARVO abstract

Oct 2023

Experimental study of evaporative heavy liquids for retinal tamponade

Retina Society 56th annual meeting, New York, covered by Modern Retina.

Modern Retina

Method-of-use patent family

Filed through Knobbe Martens from a 2023 US provisional and a 2024 PCT. National stage applications are active in the United States, Canada, the European Union, China and South Korea. The synthesis and purification route is held separately as know-how.

International publication	WO 2024/215683
PCT application	PCT/US2024/023759
European Patent Office	EP24789321.7 (EP4676449)
China (CNIPA)	CN202480038120.2
South Korea (KIPO)	KR10-2025-7037295
United States, Canada	National stage, pending

Avant Sciences, Inc. is a Delaware corporation founded in 2023.

Path to the clinic

Where we are on the way to a first-in-human study.

evapRET is being developed as a Class III device. The near-term goal is FDA approval of an Early Feasibility Study under an Investigational Device Exemption.

2016 to 2018

Bench characterization and first rabbit studies

Candidate evaporative heavy liquids identified and sourced; evaporation inside the eye demonstrated in vivo.

2022 to 2023

Confirmatory rabbit studies, company founded

Avant Sciences incorporated in June 2023. Data presented at the New York Ophthalmologic Society and the Retina Society.

2024

Patent filed, FDA pre-submission, high-purity device

PCT application filed in March. First FDA pre-submission meeting in May. High-purity material in hand by July; GMP manufacturing route established by year end. ARVO and ASRS presentations. Eyecelerator award at AAO.

2025

Seed financing and GMP supply chain

Angel financing from retina specialists, physicians and finance professionals with a history of early-stage investing. GMP purification, release and aseptic fill partners engaged.

2026

FDA pre-submission (July), Creative Destruction Lab, bench testing

Second FDA pre-submission meeting held July 2026 with CDRH’s retinal devices team. Admitted to CDL-Vancouver’s Biomedical Engineering stream. Formal evaporation characterization under way to set the large-animal dose.

2027

GLP large-animal study, then IDE submission

Protocol reviewed by FDA before the study starts, per agency guidance. IDE for an Early Feasibility Study to follow.

What we are working toward

An Early Feasibility Study in patients with inferior retinal detachment, where today’s options are weakest and where a tamponade that supports from below and then leaves on its own has the most to offer.

Founders

Vitreoretinal surgeons and researchers who use these devices every week.

Four co-founders who have worked together for decades at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai and the James J. Peters VA Medical Center. Two of them train the next generation of retina surgeons.

Avnish Deobhakta, MD

Co-Founder, President and CEO

Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Director of the Medical Retina Program and Associate Director of the Surgical Retina Program, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.

Trained at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and completed vitreoretinal fellowship at Columbia under Stanley Chang, who brought the first purified heavy liquid to the retina field. His decade of work on evaporative tamponades is the basis of Avant’s pipeline. Degrees from Stanford University and Cornell University.

Paul Lee, MD

Co-Founder and Vice President

Chief of Ophthalmology, James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx. President, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary Ophthalmology Alumni Association.

Has mentored more than fifty residents from Mount Sinai and NYEE and holds numerous teaching awards. A long-time angel investor in medical and non-medical startups. Residency and glaucoma fellowship at NYEE; MD, University of Chicago.

Richard Rosen, MD, ScD (Hon), FACS, FASRS, FARVO

Co-Founder

Pierce Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology, Deputy Chair of Clinical Affairs, Vice Chair of Research, and Surgeon Director and Retina Service Chief, New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai.

More than three decades in clinical and scientific retina, over 100 papers and chapters, and an international reputation in ophthalmic imaging and surgical devices. Has helped form and run several biotech startups.

Harriet Lloyd, MS