Menicon Co., Ltd. announced that Menicon and Tohoku University will establish the Menicon × Tohoku University Co-creation Research Center for Miru Mirai on the Aobayama Campus of Tohoku University in April 2024. Menicon will aim to create the new vision of "Miru" with Tohoku University by promoting research activities through industry­academia collaboration with the Co-creation Research Center and NanoTerasu functioning as hubs to realize ideal contact lens products and build an environment- conscious contact lens distribution system. Background of the establishment: In the contact lens market, the distribution ratio of disposable lenses is gradually increasing, causing a significant increase in the amount of plastic used for lens manufacturing and distribution.

Under such circumstances, Tohoku University established the Research Center for Green X-Tech in January 2023 as part of the Green Goals Initiative to initiate studies related to plastic recycling, including the creation of a database on recyclable plastic and the construction of a plastic circular economy system. Meanwhile, Menicon has strived to elucidate the questions around contact lenses and their materials from scientific viewpoints by utilizing quantum beam sources at various facilities, including X-ray sources at SPring-8 and the Aichi Synchrotron Radiation Center and neutron sources at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex.(Note 6) Menicon's group company in Singapore is recycling part of the plastic waste generated in the manufacturing process in order to create product cases and Menicon has pursued research on the recycling of plastic waste through participation in BRIDGE, a national program led by the Ministry of the Environment. In February 2023, Menicon joined the Coalition of NanoTerasu, a next-generation synchrotron radiation facility under preparation for operation at Tohoku University.

As part of the Coalition initiatives, the two parties will establish the Menicon × Tohoku University Co-creation Research Center for Miru Mirai on April 1, 2024. We will make use of NanoTerasu, which is expected to provide excellent performance in the measurement of soft matter, such as contact lens materials, to promote precise actual measurement by complementary use of quantum beams and the construction of a digital twin based on computation using digital transformation, which enables precise material design. NanoTerasu, which is expected to provide excellent performance in the measurement of "polymer materials", including contact lens materials, employs a high-intensity (bright) soft X-ray.

Using this soft X-ray beam, it will gain a deeper understanding of the correlation between contact lenses and water, which is one of the major issues to be addressed to achieve comfort when wearing lenses. Moreover, the construction of a digital twin for measurement and computation will be accelerated by not only performing the traditional analysis-based research but also by fusing the precise actual measurements via the complementary use of quantum beams with computational science utilizing digital transformation as two wheels to achieve precise material design. Thus far, participation in the Coalition has enabled collaboration among various researchers from diverse fields and the establishment of the Research Center, and further progress is expected.