10Meters News Service

November 30, 2002 – The U.S. Department of Energy is helping speed the development of an electronic device that could restore vision to millions of people with blindness caused by retinal disorders.

This week the DOE pledged $9 million over three years to augment research on the so-called "artificial retina" devices that can capture visual signals and send them back to the brain in the form of electrical impulses.

The device itself is a miniature disc that can be implanted in the back of the eye to replace a damaged retina. The visual signals are captured by a small video camera in the eyeglasses of the patient and processed through a microcomputer worn on a belt.

The DOE-funded project will combine the efforts of the its five national laboratories in partnership with North Carolina State University and the University of Southern California/Doheny Eye Institute.

In April, the Doheny Eye Institute announced that it had implanted a prototype artificial retina in a patient as part of an FDA-approved feasibility study. The device was developed by Valencia, Calif.-based Second Sight, LLC.

"Restoring vision to patients with retinal disorders is the truly marvelous goal of this team of researchers," said DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham.

"That the unique resources of government laboratories are helping to meet this goal is another demonstration of their benefit to the nation," he said during a speech on the USC campus in Los Angeles. "We are always looking for areas in which our interdisciplinary strengths can be leveraged to revolutionize areas of science, engineering and technology, and to improve quality of life for millions of people."

Currently, the prototype implants contain 16 electrodes, allowing patients to detect the presence or absence of light. The artificial retina project's next-generation device would have 1,000 electrodes and researchers hope it will allow the user to see images.

The goal of the project is to construct a device capable of restoring vision using materials that will last over the lifetime of the user. Although images will initially be captured by a camera housed in an eyeglass frame, researchers plan to develop a completely implanted system for this purpose.

The DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory will manage the project and provide the facilities for dynamic and static testing of electrode arrays and develop special ocular sensors. Lawrence Livermore and Sandia National Laboratories are developing advanced electrodes, and Los Alamos National Laboratory is providing advanced optical imaging techniques. Working in collaboration with Second Sight LLC, Argonne National Lab is contributing advanced packaging systems and soak testing.

North Carolina State University is leading the work on powering and communicating with the system. The USC/Doheny Eye Institute is providing medical direction of the project and clinical work related to implanting of the devices and clinical follow-up.