Investigators in India are developing a 3D-printed self-moisturising contact lens which they say has implications for the development of the next-generation contact lens-based medical devices.

The Manipal Academy of Higher Education team formed the contact lens using a soft-lithographic replication of a 3D-printed master structure, which when exposed to oxygen plasma became hydrophilic and allowed capillary-driven fluid flow in curved microchannels embedded in the lens. As well as improved self-moisturising capabilities, the lens had high optical transmittance in the pupil region and provided a platform for lab-on-a-chip capabilities, paving the way for the lenses to have real-time biomarker-probing applications, they said. The full study was published in Additive Manufacturing.