A team of researchers from Shaare Zedek Medical Center and the Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials at Bar-Ilan University (Israel) created eye drops that can repair corneas and improve myopia and hypermetropia.
“Nanoparticles” have been successfully tested on pig corneas, and clinical trials will begin later this year, writes Interesting Engineering.
The test results showed a significant improvement in error correction for both near-sightedness and far-sightedness.
It is said that this exciting invention can eliminate the need for glasses, which is great news for all glasses wearers out there. According to David Smadja, leader of the team of researchers, droplets can revolutionize treatments for patients suffering from myopia and hypermetropia. He stated that this represents a new concept to correct these problems. Anyhow, he did not mention how often these droplets should be used in order to completely remove glasses.
For this new droplets, prospective patients would have to use a smartphone app to scan the eyes, measure their refraction, create a laser pattern, and only afterwards apply a “laser corneal stamping” of an optical pattern onto the corneal surface of their eyes.
We must say that this is not the first time the use of nanotechnology for eye drops has been investigated by specialists. Up until now, many studies have been conducted to develop nanotechnology-based systems to treat eye diseases. As an example, we mention a team of researchers that has developed a method by which sperm-coated carbon quantum dots can be used to treat bacterial infections of the eyes, which can thus destroy antibiotic-resistant bacteria.