August 2008
James Su, a graduate student researcher co-advised by Materials Science and Bioengineering Professor Kevin Healy and School of Optometry Professor Christine Wildsoet, is using a synthetic biomaterial known as hydrogel to develop a promising new treatment for one of the world’s leading causes of blindness, high axial myopia.
The innovative and exciting new treatment uses a functionalized biomimetic hydrogel, an injectable liquid at cool temperatures that becomes a soft rubber-like solid at body temperature and reinforces the sclera, the part of the eye weakened in myopia. This treatment is safer and less invasive than the existing operation; Su hopes to patent and commercialize the treatment within several years and provide relief to so many suffering from the debilitating condition.
Read the full story at Innovations.