Science Corporation, a biotech startup founded by a former Neuralink co-founder, has announced promising preliminary results from clinical trials of its Prima implant, a retinal prosthesis designed to restore vision in patients with severe vision loss. The device has shown the potential to enable legally blind individuals to read and recognize faces.
The Prima implant is a small, photovoltaic chip surgically implanted under the retina. It works in conjunction with specialized glasses that have a built-in camera. This camera projects visual data onto the chip using near-infrared light. When the near-infrared light hits the chip's photovoltaic arrays, it converts the transmitted data into electrical signals. These signals then stimulate the remaining retinal neurons, which send information to the brain, potentially restoring rudimentary eyesight.
The technology behind Prima was acquired from Pixium Vision earlier this year. A clinical trial involved 38 patients suffering from geographic atrophy, a form of central vision loss caused by age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of visual impairment in older adults. All participants received the Prima implants, and the outcomes varied.
Some patients experienced significant improvements, gaining the ability to read strings of letters, lengthy portions of text from books, and even complete crossword puzzles. After a year of participation, the average visual acuity achieved was 20/160. However, five participants did not experience any improvement. While the Prima implant provides "form vision," allowing patients to distinguish shapes, it does not provide color vision. The frequency with which patients needed to use the zoom function to make text readable was not specified.
According to Science Corp CEO Max Hodak, this is the first time that restoration of the ability to fluently read has ever been definitively shown in blind patients. James Weiland, an ophthalmologist at the University of Michigan, who was not involved in the research, noted that while the results are a step forward for retinal prostheses, further details are needed to fully assess the magnitude of the improvement, including whether patients were using a magnified image when recognizing letters.
In September, Neuralink received a "breakthrough device" designation from the FDA for its "Blindsight" brain implant. However, it is likely years away from completing a clinical trial.
