According to data from 2008, nearly 5 million Americans age 50 or older suffer from moderate to severe dry eye syndrome (DES). Symptoms include discomfort and reduced visual function. The dynamics of the tear film is thought to be critical in the development of DES; rapid evaporation and/or insufficient tears are thought to cause chronic irritation leading to DES. Both of these mechanisms can lead to elevated saltiness (osmolarity), which is believed to be a key variable in understanding the irritation to the eye surface. The results from this project will yield quantitative insight into tear film flows and osmolarity dynamics that may impact how ocular scientists interpret their data. The team, which is based at the University of Delaware and the Rochester Institute of Technology, will work closely with leading optometrists to achieve this goal. The investigators will train mathematical scientists with advanced knowledge of and experience with physical and biomedical modeling, advanced computation, and physiological application. These trainees include five undergraduate and two graduate students, and one postdoctoral fellow. All trainees will participate extensively in dissemination of results to the applied mathematical and biomedical communities, via publication and travel to scientific meetings. New information discovered as part of the activity will be incorporated into graduate and undergraduate training through lectures, discussion in group seminars at the participating universities, and future research projects.
Investigators based at the University of Delaware and the Rochester Institute of Technology will collaborate to study the dynamics of the tear film on the human eye in an effort to understand its function and to help clarify causes and consequences of dry eye syndrome (DES). The results will help explain and visualize the complex tear motion during blinking and to quantify the variability of critical quantities such as tear saltiness (osmolarity). To do so, new tear film models consisting of nonlinear coupled high-order partial differential equations on moving, two-dimensional eye-shaped domains will be formulated using a variety of methods from applied mathematics and mechanics. The team will then develop two new computational techniques to solve the models. Current tear film models will be advanced by incorporating increasingly challenging effects of evaporation and lipid layer motion on complex moving domains. The project will draw upon the thin liquid film literature and from close consultation with experimental optometrists to make informed decisions about mathematical modeling, comparison with in vivo experimental data, and sensible interpretation of the results.
This award by the Mathematical Biology Program in the Division of Mathematical Sciences is co-funded by the Fluid Dynamics Program in the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems.
