“4D tissue” building technique creates self curving synthetic cornea

An acute shortage of donated corneas – the clear bowl -shaped layer at the front of the eyeball – has inspired tissue engineers at Newcastle University to develop the new technique.  "Currently there is a shortage of donated corneas which has worsened in recent years, as they cannot be used from anyone who has had laser eye surgery so we need to explore alternatives such as these self-curving corneas,” said Prof Che Connon, a professor of tissue engineering at Newcastle University. "The cells are triggered into forming a complex 3D structure, but as this requires time to occur, the fourth dimension in this equation, we have labelled them 4D structures."

The synthetic cornea was formed from corneal stem cells encapsulated into a collagen gel. This gel was cast into two concentric flat circles. These circles were then treated with serum containing peptide amphiphile molecules. The serum turned the cells into biological actuators, which over time pulled the flat structure into the desired three-dimensional shape.