The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) recently announced three awardees for its Vision Prosthesis Pilot Study Award, which will explore novel technologies contributing to the development of a working visual prosthesis prototype for those who have sustained severe macular degenerate or traumatic eye injury.
The first awardee is Dr. Joseph Rizzo and his team from Massachusetts Eye and Ear at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Rizzo's team has reportedly developed a wireless and implantable neural prosthesis for use in the retina, which requires a functional optic nerve. The award will allow the team to will develop and test a prosthesis to electrically stimulate the lateral geniculate nucleus so signals can skip over the damaged optic nerve and reach visual centers in the brain.
The second awardee is Dr. Andrew Weitz and his team from University of Southern California's Roski Eye Institute. Dr. Weitz has been focused on a cortical visual prosthesis and will reportedly use funding from the award to help them achieve a prototype prosthesis that deals with current cortical visual prosthesis issues of generating precise images.
And the third awardee is Dr. Joseph Kao, professor of physiology at University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Biomedical Engineering & Technology (BioMET), who is reportedly exploring the use of optical photostimulation. His team will be developing a neurotransmitter molecule in the visual cortex that is activated by a light-emitting device placed on the surface of the brain.
Click here to read the full press release.
Source: Department of Defense -- CDMRP