Along with its consumer products, Opti-Free contact lens solution and Systane eye drops, Alcon also manufactures surgical equipment and implantable lenses.

Patrick Gill, who headed the project, had been trying to create a lens-less implantable device to detect brain neurons that, due to modifications, glow when they’re active.

As implantable biomaterial, the implantation of the intraocular lens (IOL) will inevitably lead to a series of biocompatibility responses.