The future is still to be seen

Looking into the future of corneas

• See the end of work for disclaimer and note the recording, photograph and video are submitted for this article with the consent of Newscastle University who owns content   

Prof. Che Connon (right with glasses) and Dr Steve Swioklo (left) 

co-author who are both by their 3D printer. The photograph is 

submitted by Newscastle University, UK. 

By Melissa Wong
My Online Journalism Blog

Newcastle University engineers created the first artificial cornea.

The journal, Experimental Eye Research, published a paper about how these scientists used stem cells, a photograph of a volunteer's eye, and a 3D printer to create an artificial cornea.

How they make a cornea

Prof. Che Connon is a tissue engineer at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom and he was one of the scientists who created the artificial cornea.

Connon says when stem cells are mixed in bio-ink the stem cells are kept alive and the ink is thin enough and "stiff enough" to be able to recreate the shape of a cornea, in a recording he emailed to Newfoundland.

In a video submitted by Newcastle University, UK the processes of the printer in action is shown. 

In his recording, Connon said they’ve been working on "cornea tissue engineering for almost 20 years."

Over time, the engineers learned the shape of the tissue instructs the way cells act. Connon added that artificial corneas should not be flat, they should be curved to create a functioning cornea

"We're separating the wet and messy production of cells, which will be done at a central site from the actual printing," Connon said. "So, that is a really powerful application moving forward."

There is still a lot of work to do before human can get artificial cornea transplants

According to Eyewire News and Popular Mechanics, these artificial corneas could be used by humans one day and after a lot more research, clinical trials, and time.

"It's important because there is a lack of donor corneas," Connon said. "Especially, in the less developed world, they don't have good eye banks, like they do in the more developed worlds. This means that many people don't have access to corneas."

Disclaimer:

I contacted Prof. Che Connon in the United Kingdom and he sent me a recording, photograph link, and Youtube video for my news story. I could not publish the story because a local source, who will not be named, asked me not to quote them and this story got killed. It is not fair to Connon, I will publish the story without a local source on my blog for him because I feel like I wasted his time if I do not do something for him.

• The unnamed source will not be quoted; this person's information will not be used at all.
• Photograph and video was sent by Connon for me to use in my story.

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©Melissa Wong