Page 10 - Envision January-February 2020

V ISION S CIENCE R E SE AR CH :

Building

for

HOPE the
FUTURE

Cover Story
By JoAnne Sommers

enses that zoom on command WHO’S ZOOMING WHO?
might sound like something from In a development straight from the pages
Blade Runner or Robocop but of science fiction, researchers at the
they’re actually the creation of a University of California San Diego and
Lresearch team from UCLA San China’s Harbin Institute of Technology
Diego. The lenses, which are profiled have created a biomimetic soft lens that
below, are among the breakthrough zooms in and out when the user simply
technologies announced by scientists blinks.
working in the field of vision science
research in 2019. All over the world,
advances in gene therapy, bionics and
stem-cell therapy are improving the
lives of people with vision loss or serious
eye ailments. And while many of these
projects are still in their infancy, they are
already giving hope to patients and their
doctors, where none existed in the past.

2019 was marked by a number of
significant achievements in the field
of vision science. Here is a look at some
of them.

8 / JANUARY—FEBRUARY 2020 / www.ENVISIONMAGAZINE.ca /