Contact lenses give a person the ability to see without glasses. If you have keratoconus, they are essential, as regular glasses don?t work with an irregularly shaped cornea. These relatively simple lenses have evolved beyond corrective lenses to measure blood glucose levels, dispense eye medication and even help the blind see.
Monitoring Blood Sugar
Google is currently working on a lens with tiny wireless chips and glucose sensors that are sandwiched between two lenses. They would monitor glucose levels once a second and use tiny LED lights, also inside the lenses, to flash when levels are too high or low. The electronics are no larger than a speck of glitter, with a wireless antenna that is thinner than a human hair. While they are still in development ? Google has run clinical research studies and is in discussions with the FDA ? they could make blood-sugar monitoring far less invasive than pricking your finger.
Drug Delivery for Glaucoma
Getting glaucoma patients to regularly use their eye drops to regulate the pressure in their eyes has always been difficult. They forget, don?t want to be bothered or have a hard time getting the drops into their eyes. Two research projects are exploring the use of contact lenses to deliver medication for a prolonged period of time.
Researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical School Department of Ophthalmology, Boston Children?s Hospital and MIT are working on a lens designed with a clear central area and a drug-polymer film made with the glaucoma drug latanoprost around the edge to control the drug release. These lenses can be made with no refractive power or made with the ability to correct the refractive error in nearsighted or farsighted eyes.
Another team from UCLA has combined the glaucoma medication timolol maleate with nanodiamonds and embedded them into contact lenses. When the drugs interact with the patient?s tears, the drugs are released into the eye. While the nanodiamonds strengthen the lens, there is no difference in water content, so they would be comfortable to wear and allow oxygen levels to reach the eye.
Seeing in the Dark
Researchers from the University of Michigan have developed an infrared sensor that eventually could be used in the production of night-vision contact lenses. Thanks to graphene, a tightly packed layer of carbon atoms, scientists were able to create a super-thin sensor that can be stacked on a contact lens or integrated with a cell phone.
Stem Cells for Corneal Damage
Researchers in Australia are working on a way to treat corneal damage with stem cell?infused contact lenses. Stem cells were taken from the subject?s good eye and then placed on contact lenses (if there is a defect in both eyes, stem cells are taken from a different part of the eye). After wearing these contacts for about two weeks, the subjects reported a significant increase in sight.
Helping the Blind See
What good are contact lenses if you are blind? At Israel?s Bar Ilan University, researchers are creating special lenses that translate images into sensations felt on the eye. It works by taking an image with a smartphone or camera, processing it and sending it to the contact lens. The custom-made lens is fitted with a series of electrodes that use small electric impulses to relay shapes onto the cornea, similar to braille. After some practice, test subjects were able to identify specific objects.
These projects all were reported in the first four months of 2014. It seems the evolution of contact lens use is just beginning. We will continue to follow these innovations on our blog.