India’s First 3D-Printed Human Cornea Developed

06 January 2023: Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad have successfully 3D-printed Human Cornea and transplanted it into a rabbit’s eye. For the first time in the country, a team of clinicians and scientists from the LV Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI), IIT Hyderabad and the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), collaborated to develop the 3D-printed cornea from the human donor corneal tissue.

The team of researchers said that their product is completely natural, contains no synthetic components and is free of animal residues. Two lead researchers from the LVPEI behind this groundbreaking development said that the innovation could be extremely useful for treating diseases such as corneal scarring or keratoconus.

This made-in-India product by an Indian clinician-scientist team made use of decellularised corneal tissue matrix and stem cells extracted from the human eye to develop a unique biometric hydrogel that was used as the background material for 3D printing the cornea.

Currently, Corneal transplantation is used as a standard of care for cases with severe disease and vision loss. Significantly, this made-in-India product could offer an alternative solution to corneal blindness wherein each donor cornea can aid in the preparation of three 3D-printed corneas.