A biotechnology company built on twenty years of trabecular meshwork science.
OccuFlow Bio was founded to translate a well-characterized mechanistic hypothesis, that endoplasmic reticulum stress in the trabecular meshwork drives outflow failure, into the first therapy that restores the eye's natural drainage architecture.
Dr. Gulab Zode
Dr. Zode is a glaucoma researcher with more than twenty years of continuous NIH-funded investigation into the cellular biology of the trabecular meshwork. His work has been supported by the National Eye Institute across multiple R01 awards.
His laboratory established the central hypothesis underlying OF-01: that endoplasmic reticulum stress and the unfolded protein response in trabecular meshwork cells are a primary driver of outflow resistance in glaucoma, and that chemical chaperones can resolve that stress and restore function.
With over sixty peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Zode's research has shaped how the field understands the cellular mechanics of aqueous outflow and the therapeutic potential of targeting ER stress directly.
A hypothesis validated across two decades of investigation.
The scientific foundation of OccuFlow Bio is not a single discovery but a body of convergent evidence, mechanistic, cellular, and functional, built over a sustained program of NIH-funded research.
That body of work demonstrates that ER stress is present in the glaucomatous trabecular meshwork, that it can be reduced by chemical chaperones, and that reducing it restores outflow facility. OF-01 is the clinical translation of that evidence.
To deliver the first glaucoma therapy that restores the eye's natural outflow function, shifting the standard of care from pressure management to architectural recovery.