DailyDirt: That The Blind May See
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Most of us take vision for granted, but about 21.5 million adult Americans have trouble seeing, even with glasses or other vision aids. The leading causes of blindness or low vision in the US are age-related eye diseases, and many of the treatments are in fairly early stages of research and development. It's not easy to replicate the functions of a retina, but here are just a few projects that are working on ways to restore vision with some interesting technologies.- Retrosense Therapeutics is working on a gene therapy that will allow ganglion cells (instead of rod and cone cells) to respond to light and send visual information to the brain. Patients with retinitis pigmentosa often have plenty of healthy ganglion cells, but they can't see because their natural photoreceptors aren't functioning. This therapy has restored some vision-based behaviors in rodents, and clinical trials could start in 2013. [url]
- Electronic devices to replace natural retinas are being developed by about 20 research groups around the world. The Centre for Ophthalmology, Tuebingen, Germany has transferred some of its research to a company (Retina Implant AG) for clinical testing of a subretinal chip. [url]
- Australian researchers have developed a prototype bionic eye and implanted it in a 54-year-old woman. The Bionics Institute in East Melbourne is studying how her brain reacts to the signals from this implant, and so far, Dianne Ashworth can now see some flashes of light. [url]
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: bionics institute, blind, eye, ganglion, implant, low vision, photoreceptors, retina, retinitis pigmentosa, sight
Companies: retina implant, retrosense therapeutics
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Problem solved :-)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Once they can do that with pain receptor cells, it will be like the 4th of July...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ahem, good to see these developments. (no pun intended)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I have a younger sister about to undergo her 2nd eye surgery - she has a detached retina and has lost most of the sight in one eye as a complication from diabetes. In a few years maybe some of these techniques will be able to help her - assuming they don't get patented and do no one any good.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]