At least 10 million people worldwide have gone blind due to damage or disease of corneas. And many millions more are nearsighted or farsighted due to misshapen corneas. All of them can go optimistic with their vision getting normal or even getting it back altogether!
Chemical engineer Curtis W. Frank has developed a bio-mimetic material — called DuoptixTM — that can lead to produce artificial corneas! The material is a hydrogel or polymer that can hold a lot of water, swelling to a water content of 80 percent, which is about the same as biological tissues.
Made of two interwoven networks of hydrogels, one network is made of polyethylene glycol molecules — resisting the accumulation of surface proteins and inflammation — and the other is made of molecules of polyacrylic acid — a relative of the super-absorbent material in diapers.
