Eyeglasses may soon be a thing of the past thanks to a team of ophthalmologists from Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Bar-Ilan University’s Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials that has developed eyedrops capable of repairing the cornea in addition to improving short and long sightedness.

The eyedrops, called "nanodrops," were successfully tested on pig corneas and will later this year undergo clinical trials on humans. According to researchers, the drops could significantly change the treatment of patients diagnosed with myopia, hyperopia (near-sightedness and far-sightedness, respectively) and other refractory conditions, potentially replacing multifocal lenses entirely.

“This is a new concept for correcting refractory problems,” said Dr. David Smadja, research team lead.

Analyzing the refractive errors in pig eyes both before and after the drops (filled with various concentrations of synthetic nanoparticles) were administered, researchers found that the improvement in error correction was significant for both myopic and hyperopic refractive error.

Depending on whether the results are as promising under the human trials, patients will only need a smartphone app to scan their eyes, measure their refraction, design a laser pattern and then “laser corneal stamping” of an optical pattern on the corneal surface of the eye.

For more on the research, click here.