Design engineer and University of Iowa graduate Noah Healy has invented a new way to temporarily repair perforated corneas — the part of the eye that controls and focuses the entry of light.
Healy‘s invention is called kPlug and is entering clinical testing phase, with the possibility of being mass produced.
Healy, originally from Frankfort, Ill., now works in the research lab at the Iowa Lions Eye Bank at the BioVentures Center at the Iowa Research Park in Coralville.
Healy said patients can get infections or ulcers in their cornea that cause perforation — a small hole.
“It is painful, so the patient goes to a clinic,” Healy said in a UI news release.
But it can take time to schedule a patient into an operating room for a cornea transplant, so a quicker repair is needed.
“They do that with Krazy Glue,” Healy said. “They take a little plastic disc, put Krazy Glue on it, and poke it (on the perforation). For obvious reasons, that doesn’t hold. It’s like duct-taping a tire.”
His kPlug invention acts like a tire plug on a punctured tire, he said.
“There is a piece of cornea that sits on the inside of the eye and on the outside of the eye in the shape of a cuff link, and it holds the pressure a lot better,” he said.
Initial bench studies of kPlug have been completed. The next step is clinical testing.
Healy works with ophthalmologist Dr. Christopher Sales at the Iowa Lions Eye Bank lab where researchers are provided tissue to work and experiment with.
The two recently partnered with a company that will test kPlug to see if it can be scaled and mass-produced.
“We can’t wrap our heads around what steps to take next for the scaling part of it,” Healy said. “It is talking to a lot of different companies and partners and people that have done it before.”
Healy earned a degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Iowa in May 2021 and a master’s degree in engineering in December 2022.
Healy said he came to the UI because of its strong reputation in biomedical engineering. While at the UI, he was a walk-on to the Hawkeye cross country and track and field teams.
Award winner
Healy’s kPlug already has seen some success.
kPlug won first place and $20,000 at the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center Innovation Challenge Awards in November 2023, winning the faculty/staff/graduate student/incubator startup division in the “best technology” category.
Others who have aided Healy’s research include UI Ventures, which has funded a few of the ongoing projects in the lab. Jon Darsee and Jordan Kaufmann with the UI Office of Innovation also provided advice and guidance on the business side of things.