Retinal prosthesis could enable blind to see shapes, even text

The San Diego Union Tribune | September 7, 2017

A nano-engineered electronic prosthesis under development by a UC San Diego spinoff may one day restore usable eyesight to those with retinal degeneration. La Jolla's Nanovision Biosciences Inc. has completed its animal studies with the electronic device, said Scott Thorogood, the company's CEO and co-founder. Its current generation device delivers a theoretical vision of 20/200. "With that level of sight they would be able to see light and dark shapes and probably also large type, which is far better than being totally blind," he said. Full Story

Nanowire retinal implant could restore sight with better resolution

New Atlas | March 17, 2017

Advances in bionic eyes over the past few decades have given blind and visually impaired people new hope of restoring some of their vision. Now engineers have tested a new nano-scale system that could be implanted onto a patient's retina to respond to light by directly stimulating the neurons that send visual signals to the brain. Unlike other systems, the new device wouldn't require any external sensors, and can provide a much higher resolution. Full Story

New Wirelessly Powered Scalable Retinal Prosthesis

medGadget | March 16, 2017

A collaboration between researchers at University of California San Diego and Nanovision Biosciences, a university spinoff, has developed a method for constructing wirelessly powered retinal prostheses that interface directly with retinal cells. The implant is structured from photosensitive silicon nanowires and, because they produce a textured surface, retinal cells are able to grow on them. Powering the array is a novel wireless system, that sits on the head near the eye, and provides current to all the nanowires simultaneously. Full Story

Novel nano-implant may help restore sight

Yahoo! News | March 15, 2017

Scientists have developed a high-resolution retinal prosthesis using nanowires and wireless electronics that may aid neurons in the retina to respond to light. The technology could help tens of millions of people worldwide suffering from neurodegenerative diseases that affect eyesight, including macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and loss of vision due to diabetes. In the study, detailed in the Journal of Neural Engineering, the researchers demonstrated this response to light in a rat retina interfacing with a prototype of the device in vitro. Full Story

Progress towards bionic eye implants

the Engineer UK | March 15, 2017

Engineers at the University of California - San Diego and a La Jolla-based start-up company called Nanovision Biosciences now report that they have developed new technology that directly stimulates retinal cells to potentially restore high resolution sight that has been lost owing to neurodegenerative diseases, such as macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and loss of sight owing to diabetes: all major causes of blindness in humans, affecting millions of people around the world and currently with no effective treatment. Full Story

New Nano-implant Could One Day Help Restore Sight

Bioscience Technology | March 15, 2017

A team of engineers at the University of California San Diego and La Jolla-based startup Nanovision Biosciences Inc. have developed the nanotechnology and wireless electronics for a new type of retinal prosthesis that brings research a step closer to restoring the ability of neurons in the retina to respond to light. The researchers demonstrated this response to light in a rat retina interfacing with a prototype of the device in vitro. They detail their work in a recent issue of the Journal of Neural Engineering. Full Story