Development of 'SilicoSim', a Contact Lens Material Design System

Tohoku University (Sendai, Miyagi; President: Teiji Tominaga) and Menicon Co., Ltd. (Nagoya, Aichi; President and CEO: Koji Kawaura) announced in June 2026 the development of 'SilicoSim', a design system for contact lens materials based on multi-scale modeling that integrates measurement and computation.

Tohoku University and Menicon have elucidated the relationship between the 3D internal nano-structures and material transport functions of silicone hydrogel, a polymer material widely used for soft contact lenses due to its ability to balance high oxygen permeability with hydrophilicity. The research group visualized the nano-scale structure and its functional realization using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and synchrotron radiation experiments, highly reproducing these results through multi-scale simulations. Furthermore, they theoretically clarified how the characteristics of oxygen and ion transport pathways change based on raw molecular structures, impacting material function.

These results were published in the polymer specialty journal 'Soft Matter' on May 26, 2026. The research group named the structural function simulation system born from this research 'SilicoSim'. Tohoku University and Menicon will utilize this system to advance their understanding of contact lens material functions and to develop new materials.

In this study, the group confirmed through TEM and 3D reconstruction that silicone hydrogels form a phase-separated structure where hydrophilic and hydrophobic silicone regions are continuously intertwined at the nanometer scale. Evaluations of oxygen and sodium ion permeability showed that oxygen is primarily transported through silicone-rich regions, while ions are primarily transported through hydrophilic regions. Additionally, using multi-scale simulations combining all-atom molecular dynamics calculations and coarse-grained simulations, they reproduced the formation of phase-separated structures during polymerization, revealing that material permeability is significantly influenced not only by the fraction of each phase but also by the continuity of transport pathways and the degree of tortuosity according to molecular structure.

Menicon has named this structural function simulation system 'SilicoSim' and will apply it to product development, as well as to verify the performance of conventional products.