Soft transparent graphene contact lens electrodes for conformal full-cornea recording of electroretinogram

Detecting eye disease with graphene lenses

24 June 2019

Soft contact lenses made from graphene could make diagnosing eye diseases less irritating and more accurate.

Electroretinography uses a contact lens studded with electrodes to detect electrical signals from the retina as it processes incoming light and sends information to the brain. The lenses are usually hard, causing discomfort, and electrodes can partially block the light, making readings inaccurate.

A team that included researchers from Peking University created a soft contact lens using microscopic graphene electrodes that do not block incoming light. They grew the graphene layer directly onto a cornea-shaped mould to make it perfectly fit the eye so that tears could not disrupt the signals.

When tested on macaques, the graphene-based lens picked up strong signals across the full cornea without irritating the monkeys’ eyes.

The new lens could help reveal minute glitches in the retina that may have been missed by previous techniques.

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References

1. Nature Communications 9, 2334 (2018). doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04781-w