Absorbent Microarray Eye Patches for Tear Collection & Analysis

Description

Eye health has profound implications for many aspects of life, health, sustainable development, and economy. However, few people seek the regular eye examination to monitor the eye health and ensure that everything is working at its optimum. Given theageing process of the society and lifestyle change of younger population (i.e., prolonged screen time), this unavoidably causes more eye diseases like dry eye disease and vision impairment. This project is to develop a disposable, patient-friendly and convenientdevice for self-monitoring the eye health through the tear collection and analysis. The device is composing of a microneedle array (microarray) and a biosensing component. The microarray is made of cryogel with an aligned interconnected macroporous network,that quickly extracts the tear through capillary force without causing any discomfort. The biosensing component then converts the concentration of biomarkers (e.g., MMP-9) in the tear to electronic signals that are transmitted to smartphone. The device will betested on the rodent model of dry eye disease.