Advances in contact lens materials to extend wear time for a new standard in vision correction and future medical devices

项目摘要 在过去的二十年中，硅酮-水凝胶（“SiHy”）复合材料技术的商业化已经导致了新的应用。 更透气、更舒适、更实惠的柔软CL，包括具有 大大扩大了客户群，尤其是年轻一代。尽管有这些改进， 接触镜面临的主要持续问题是它们与眼环境的相容性差，特别是 泪膜虽然新复合材料的柔软性使镜片更舒适， 角膜，由此产生的紧密配合大大降低了镜片后泪液膜中的泪液交换率。此外，本发明还提供了一种方法， 透镜设计和制造的精度受到双畴（硅）热膨胀困难的限制 和水凝胶）基质，仅足以调节图像的焦点，而不是由其他更高- 阶光学像差。我们建议通过创造一种新的接触透镜材料来解决这些问题， 一种新型的同类最佳软性透镜，在视力矫正、清晰度和舒适度方面都有显著改进， 适用于众多患者群体。 该项目将根据材料和光学技术的最新进展设计新一代透镜创新。 制造纳米技术。亚微米形貌控制、分子自组装、 和高精度成型（以及3D打印），将使未来的CL设备更精确，生物相容性， 多才多艺我们确定了CL的三个主要改进领域，这些领域将从我们实施此类新技术中受益 新兴技术：（a）预合成新型有机硅嵌段共聚物，以实现更高精度的域控制 （B）高精度制造和高清晰度（“HD”）设计在透镜制造期间的应用， 校正CL的球面像差，以及（c）设计新的透镜材料和表面涂层， 增强PLTF周转以改善眼部健康。 新产品将广泛取代目前的CL，至少有3900万患者在美国市场，并可能 通过新的和有价值的功能，如控制青少年近视进展， 和老年人夜视增强（通过高精度控制和高清晰度设计），以及 前所未有的舒适性和生物相容性（通过新的表面涂层增强PLTF周转）。此夕h 新的舒适度和更长的佩戴时间将解决与当前最先进技术相关的一个关键挑战 在眼部药物输送和监测设备，促进我们的技术，以发展这些未来的平台 应用于治疗其他大量人群，例如全球6400万青光眼患者。

PROJECT SUMMARY Over the last two decades, the commercialization of silicone-hydrogel ("SiHy") composite technologies has led to new soft CLs that are more breathable, comfortable, and affordable, including in daily disposable versions which have considerably broadened the customer base, especially among younger generations. Despite these improvements, the major persistent problem facing contact lenses is their poor compatibility with ocular environment, particularly the tear film. While the softness of the new composite materials made lenses more comfortable by conforming better to the cornea, the resultant tight fitting considerably lowers the tear exchange rate in the post-lens tear film. In addition, the precision of lens design and fabrication, limited by the difficulties of the thermal expansion of a dual-domain (silicon and hydrogel) substrate, are adequate only for adjusting an image's focus, not its visual acuity caused by other higher- order optical aberrations. We propose to solve these issues by creating a novel contact lens material that will lead to a new best-in-class soft lens with significant improvements in vision correction, clarity and comfort, and wide applicability to numerous patient populations. This project will engineer the new generation of lens innovations based on several recent advances in material and fabrication nanotechnologies. The combined application of submicron morphology control, molecular self-assembly, and high-precision molding (as well as 3-D printing), will make future CL devices more precise, biocompatible, and versatile. We identified three major areas of improvement in CLs that will benefit from our implementation of such new emerging technologies: (a) Pre-synthesis of new silicone block-copolymers for higher-precision control of domain morphology during lens fabrication, (b) Application of high-precision fabrication and high-definition ("HD") design for correcting the spherical aberration of CLs, and (c) Engineering a novel design of lens material and surface coating for enhancing PLTF turnover to improve ocular health. The new product would widely replace current CLs for at least the 39 million patients in the US market, and likely expand this market significantly with new and valuable functions such as control of myopia progression for adolescents and night vision enhancements for the elderly (by high-precision control and high-definition design), as well as unprecedented comfort and biocompatibility (by new surface coating's enhancement of PLTF turnover). Further, the new level of comfort and extended wear time would solve one key challenge associated with current state-of-the-art in ocular drug delivery and monitoring devices, promoting our technology to a future platform for growing these applications to treat other large populations such as the 64 million glaucoma patients worldwide.