University of Utah engineering researchers will use a $2.4 million grant from the National Eye Institute to study keratoconus using biomedical chip technology. The four-year project aims to investigate how changes in the shape of the cornea damage cells and to explore potential treatments for the blinding disease.
Keratoconus is a condition that causes the eye’s cornea to thin and bulge, potentially leading to vision blurriness that cannot be corrected by eyeglasses. According to Jungkyu "Jay" Kim, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who holds joint appointments in biomedical engineering and the John A. Moran Eye Center, the disease may follow a feedback loop. Kim explained that the cone shape creates stress that damages cells, causing the tissue to thin and bulge further, which in turn increases the stress.
To study this, Kim's lab developed a cornea-on-a-chip, a small transparent device containing living human corneal cells on a thin membrane. The device allows researchers to use hydraulic pressure to change the membrane's curvature from a healthy dome to the steep geometries seen in keratoconus. This technology allows researchers to manipulate curvature across all three corneal cell layers in a single chip.
The research project involves multiple departments within the Price College of Engineering and the Moran Eye Center. Jiyoung Chang, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, fabricates the ultrathin membranes used in the device. Michael Yu, a professor of biomedical engineering, analyzes protein and collagen damage under mechanical stress. Additionally, Moran Eye Center cornea surgeon Amy Lin provides corneal tissue from patients undergoing transplants and data regarding tissue curvature and thickness.
The cornea-on-a-chip is part of a category of New Approach Methodologies, which are human-based laboratory models designed to provide answers to questions that currently require animal studies. Because animal eyes differ significantly from human eyes, the FDA Modernization Act has increased federal interest in these types of models. Kim noted that these chips allow researchers to answer questions that previously lacked adequate animal models.
The grant aims to answer whether the cycle of damage can be disrupted and to identify molecular pathways for drug testing. Researchers plan to test drugs by applying them to the chip both before the cornea steepens and after damage has already begun.
