The Netherlands Institute for Innovative Ocular Surgery (NIIOS) is an ophthalmic institute based in Rotterdam that facilitates a unique combination of the following organizations: - Amnitrans EyeBank Rotterdam (AER): an independent, non-profit, multi-tissue bank. While AER also supplies tissue for conventional penetrating keratoplasty, its main specialization is the surgical preparation of transplants for advanced lamellar keratoplasty procedures such as DMEK, which was pioneered by AER. Related organizations to Amnitrans EyeBank are Amnitrans BioImplants Rotterdam (ABI) for custom made tissue preparation and Weefsel Centrum Nederland (WCN) for donor tissue explantation. - Melles Cornea Clinic Rotterdam (MHR): a tertiary referral center specialized in the treatment of corneal disorders and ocular surface diseases. Patients are treated with state-of-the-art transplantation techniques such as Bowman Layer Implantation for advanced keratoconus and DMEK for endothelial disorders. - NIIOS Research & Development (R&D): a department that focuses on R&D related to ophthalmology; - NIIOS Academy (ACA): an educational section offering fellowships, hands-on wetlab courses for corneal surgeons, training for eye bank staff and broadcasting live DMEK-surgeries; - Hippocratech (HIPPO): a company specialized in manufacturing and supplying medical devices, reagents and disposable packs for ophthalmic and eye banking purposes; - Melles Research Foundation (MRF): a foundation that aims to financially support ophthalmic research and development. This structure for NIIOS was chosen to enable the design and development of innovative surgical techniques such as DLEK, DSEK, DMEK, DMET, DALK and Bowman Layer Implantation, and for medical devices such as VisionBlue, MembraneBlue, ILM-Blue, MembraneBlue Dual and the Surgicube that was designed for performing ophthalmic surgeries under sterile conditions in any clinical setting.
