Tag: Ophthalmology

Microneedles for Easy Delivery of Drugs into Eye

A number of eye conditions can be treated by administering drugs directly into the eye. Yet, conventional needles have a bunch of drawbacks, including the patients’ fear of needles entering such fragile parts of the body and the difficulty of accurately administering medication into a targeted region of the eye. For glaucoma, for example, eye drops are prescribed which have a shorter active lifetime and are often skipped by the patients. An easy injection that works for months at a time would help control the disease considerably better.

Researchers at Georgia Tech and Emory University have been working on microneedles and formulations to safely and effectively deliver drugs into the eye. The microneedles are designed to only penetrate to the correct depth and the formulations need to be viscous enough to stay in place and release their therapeutic compounds in a controlled fashion. The researchers have already tested the microneedles on laboratory animals and showed that they can place drugs within the targeted sections of the eye.

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Artificial Semiconductor Wireless Retina Already Proving Itself in Lab Study

Researchers from Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, and Newcastle University have created a proof of concept artificial retina that may one day help treat a number of eye diseases, including age-related macular degeneration. The device is made of semiconductor nanorod-carbon nanotubes and doesn’t have any metal wire components. The resulting film is both flexible and light sensitive, allowing it to be shaped into the form of a natural retina.

The researchers tested the new device on chicks whose retinas were still not light sensitive, and showed that the artificial retina was able to induce neuronal activity in response to light.

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