Purdue prof lands $6.7M grant for ‘smart’ contact lens
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Research teams led by a Purdue University professor have received $6.7 million in federal grants to further development of a “smart” soft contact lens that can monitor glaucoma, dry-eye syndrome and other chronic eye diseases.
Chi Hwan Lee, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, leads the teams that are developing the patent-pending devices, according to a university news release. The lens technology is a sticker-like item containing smart technology that when used on a typical contact lens can measure pressure within the eyes. Glaucoma is caused by increased intraocular pressure (IOP).
Similar wearable biomedical devices exist, the university said, but their increased lens thickness and stiffness cause discomfort and offer less promise toward treatment itself.
“To address this unmet need, we developed a unique class of smart soft contact lenses built upon various commercial brands of soft contact lenses for continuous 24-hour IOP monitoring and potentially treatment, even during sleep at home,” Lee said in the release.
By continuously monitoring eye pressure, the technology can send an alarm to your smartphone to wake you up so that you can change your posture or apply eye drops to reduce your eye pressure, Lee told Inside INdiana Business in March 2023. Glaucoma is a leading cause of blindness in the U.S. and is known to cause the most damage during sleep.
The $6.7 million in grants comes from the National Eye Institute, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. The funds will help further refine the smart soft contact lenses, said Lee, who also is co-founder and chief scientific officer of BVS Sight, a startup involved in the project.
“This system will enable simultaneous monitoring and drug delivery for a wide range of chronic ocular diseases,” Lee said.
Other researchers involved in the project include Purdue professor Bryan Boudouris, Purdue assistant professor Shin Ae Park, Indiana University professor Pete Kollbaum and University of Michigan associate professor Yannis Paulus, the news release said. Jinyuan Zhang, a former Purdue postdoctoral engineering student, and Yumin Dai, a graduate engineering student, also contribute.