Artificial Retina with Micro Fabrication

An implantable artificial retina fabricated at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is bringing sight to the blind.

“We’re talking about our progress and where we see the project going,” said Sat Pannu, who leads Livermore’s Center for Micro- and Nano-Technology, which has developed the microfabrication technology.

The project has many partners — including Second Sight Medical Products Inc., the Southern California company that has licensed the technology. Early, lower-resolution versions of the device allow people blinded for decades by the genetic eye disease Retinitis Pigmentosa or by age-related macular degeneration to see images, albeit fuzzy.

This is how it works: A miniature camera, which sits inside a pair of sunglasses, sends images wirelessly to a microprocessor worn on a patient’s belt. There it is converted to an electronic signal that is sent to a receiver on the eye, which sends the signal via a thin cable to a nanofabricated, watch-battery-size microelectrode array that is surgically tacked onto the retina. The array then emits pulses to the optic nerve, which sends a signal to the brain for processing.
The camera allows patients to zoom in and adjust the contrast of an image, Pannu said.

The project is led by Mark Humayun, a surgeon with a doctorate in biomedical engineering, at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California. The lead laboratory is Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee.

Pannu, who has worked on the project since 2003, is turning again to the Department of Energy as well as the National Institutes of Health for the cash it would take to continue development through the highest-resolution version.

Posted in: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Macular Degeneration, National Institute of Health, Optic nerve, Retina