IIT Hyderabad researchers develop hydrogel to protect eye

The hydrogel can be applied immediately after injury which helps to regenerate the cornea without scarring. 

Associate professor Falguni Pati from the Department of Bio-medical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad and his research team have developed a hydrogel from discarded corneas from human and bovine sources using a novel and simple method.  

Congratulating the team on the novel innovation, Prof B Murty, Director, IIT Hyderabad, said, “Vision, being one of the most important organs of any living being, this innovation by Dr Falguni and team will indeed bring light to many lives. This innovation has once again demonstrated IIT Hyderabad’s zeal to collaborate for synergistic outcomes to serve the society at large.” 

The team discovered the most striking feature of the tissue-specific hydrogel to prevent the cells from scar tissue formation, which is attributed to the micro-environment that cannot be offered by any synthetic or other natural material. 

Until now, no strategy was available to prevent corneal scarring following an injury. The team demonstrated, for the first time, that this hydrogel can be applied immediately after injury which helps to regenerate the cornea without scarring. 

“We have tested the corneal hydrogel for two complications associated with cornea — corneal scarring and keratoconus — and, in both cases, we found that this can be successfully used as a new treatment strategy to avoid complicated surgeries,” Shibu Chameettachal, PhD scholar, department of biomedical engineering, IIT Hyderabad said. 

Dr Falguni Pati said, “The department has taken many ingenious initiatives from offering BTech in bio-medical engineering to MTech in medical device innovation. Medical science backed by the expertise of engineering will bring life-changing research and make it a reality.” 

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