A University of Leeds postgraduate research student hopes to correct presbyopia with a new lens implant that uses the same material found in smartphone and TV screens.
Devesh Mistry, a student at the School of Physics and Astronomy, was working with liquid crystal to create an artificial lens that would adjust and focus automatically, depending on the eye muscles’ movement. He aimed to have a prototype ready by the end of his doctorate in 2018 and hoped that, within a decade, the research could see the new lens being implanted into eyes in a quick and straightforward surgical procedure under local anaesthetic. It was hoped that the lens could also have an application in tackling cataracts.
‘Liquid crystals are a very underrated phase of matter,’ said Mistry. ‘Everybody’s happy with solids, liquids and gases, and the phases of matter, but liquid crystals lie between crystalline solids and liquids. They have an ordered structure like a crystal, but they can also flow like a liquid and respond to stimuli.’
The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Ultravision CLPL. Mistry was also recently awarded an Industrial Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, which awards a range of fellowships and grants to support science and engineering research, and industrial education across the UK.
Professor Helen Gleeson, head of the school of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leeds, said she was thrilled by Mistry’s fellowship accolade: ‘This will support an excellent student working on an exciting project that involves optometry, physics and engineering, helping us to take our research ideas towards a practical device.’