Future lenses "could release drugs into eyes"

17.09.2008

A chemical engineer has developed a type of contact lens that releases drugs and medicine into the eye, it emerged this week.

Mark Byrne of Auburn University in Alabama has designed a contact lens material which can hold drugs and then release them into the eye slowly enough for it to be properly absorbed.

According to the New Scientist, soft contact lenses used to do this are often not fit for purpose because not enough of the medicine can be administered via this method.

Mr Byrne"s development is different because the molecular structure of the lens material can reproduce that of tissue-receptor sites, which the drug can target.

The magazine said he is working on commercialisation of the product having already started developing anti-fungal contact lenses which would be used to treat horses with eye infections.

Auburn University was recently ranked 45th in the top 50 public universities in America, a US News & World report revealed.

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