Carole Maldonado-Codina is currently a Reader in Optometry and Associate Director of Eurolens Research at The University of Manchester, UK (www.eurolens.manchester.ac.uk). In this capacity she is responsible for contact lens teaching in the final year of the undergraduate Optometry degree programme and acts as Principal Investigator on a number of industry and grant-funded projects.  Carole graduated in Optometry from Aston University in 1990 and worked in private practice before gaining an MSc in 1997 from UMIST and then a PhD in 2001, from the same institution. Carole is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry, a Fellow of the British Contact Lens Association, a member of the International Association of Contact Lens Educators, a council member of the International Society for Contact Lens Research, a member and past Chair of the British Universities Committee of Contact Lens Educators, a past recipient of the BCLA Irving Fatt Memorial Award and is an examiner for the College of Optometrists. Her main research interests focus on the characterisation of contact lens materials and the ocular response to contact lens wear.

Soft contact lenses are the most widely prescribed form of contact lens around the world.  These lenses are termed ‘soft’ since they are made from water-swollen, cross-linked, hydrophilic polymers (hydrogels).  A relatively recent addition to the contact lens market is that of lenses fabricated from silicone hydrogel materials.  These were developed to improve the oxygen delivery to the ocular surface, particularly during overnight wear.  Whilst a number of contact lens related adverse events appear to have been reduced or eliminated with the introduction of this new family of materials, their introduction has brought along its own, new set of complications principally related to the mechanical characteristics of these materials and the wettability of these inherently hydrophobic surfaces.  Additionally, epidemiological evidence now suggests that the incidence of severe corneal inflammatory events or microbial keratitis (MK) is similar for both the new silicone hydrogel materials and conventional hydrogel materials.

Carole Maldonado-Codina’s research focuses on continuing to understand the interaction of contact lenses and the ocular surface as well as on the characterisation of contact lens materials with the aim of improving the biocompatibility of future materials.

My research focuses on trying to understand the effect that contact lenses have on the anterior eye as well as on the characterisation of contact lens materials with the aim of improving the biocompatibility of future materials.

Contact lenses and anterior eye