Two separate research teams are making substantive inroads in the development of smart contact lenses (CLs) for glaucoma management. A team at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) has developed a theranostic smart CL that combines an IOP sensor and a flexible drug delivery system to manage IOP measurement and medication administration. The IOP sensor has exhibited high sensitivity to ocular strain, excellent chemical stability, and biocompatibility. The flexible drug delivery system can provide on-demand delivery of timolol for IOP control, according to Professor Sei Kwang Hahn and Dr. Tae Yeon Kim of POSTECH’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The researchers successfully demonstrated that this smart CL enabled IOP measurement in real time and released the appropriate amount of drug to match the degree of IOP in rabbits with glaucoma. They published their findings in Nature Communications.

Another smart CL currently in development to detect glaucoma at its earliest stages and continuously monitor IOP aims to circumvent lens thickness and stiffness challenges that are associated with some current wearable tonometers. The CL, which is the brainchild of Chi Hwan Lee, the Leslie A. Geddes Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering in Purdue’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, is in development by BVS Sight Inc in partnership with Boomerang Ventures, Boomerang Venture Studio, Purdue Foundry, and the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology.

“Our smart soft CLs retain the intrinsic lens features of lens power, biocompatibility, softness, transparency, wettability, oxygen transmissibility, and overnight wearability. Having all these features at the same time is crucial to the success of translating smart soft CLs into glaucoma care,” Prof. Lee said in a news release.