Research into Mechanics of the lens capsule at the Ophthalmic Engineering lab at the Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford

Research is underway on the development of new constitutive models for the lens capsule. These models are needed to develop improved finite element models of the complete lens.

One approach that is being explored is to develop procedures that are based on the microstructure of the collagen IV network that exists in the lens capsule. In this modelling approach, the overall mechanical performance of the capsule is represented by a network of non-linear bars (representing the network of collagen IV) embedded in a neo-Hookean matrix (to represent the matrix of proteoglycans and glycoproteins).