Argonne plays important role in development of artificial retina
ARGONNE, Ill. (Oct. 14, 2004) — A collaborative research and development
agreement signed today between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Second
Sight LLC will help bring hope to hundreds of thousands of Americans who
are losing their sight to degenerative retinal diseases.
DOE's Argonne National Laboratory, in collaboration
with four other national laboratories and two universities, is joining with
Second Sight to develop an artificial retina that may restore sight to people
who have been blinded by these hereditary diseases.
The new agreement was signed by Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, Robert
Greenberg of Second Sight, and the principal investigators on the research
project from the research institutions involved. The signing ceremony took
place at Chicago's Navy Pier. Secretary Abraham is the keynote speaker for
the R&D 100 Awards ceremony to be held at Navy Pier this evening.
The research is led by Oak
Ridge National Laboratory, and includes in addition
to Argonne Sandia, Lawrence
Livermore and Los Alamos national
laboratories, the Doheny
Eye Institute at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles
and the University of California,
Santa Cruz .
“Harnessing the intellectual power of five national laboratories and two other
institutions presents a promising way to solve huge problems such as the need
for a retinal implant for degenerative eye diseases. However, it brings with
it an additional degree of complexity and a need for close communication between
key researchers,” says Stephen Ban, director of Argonne's Office
of Technology Transfer. “So
far we have been very successful in the collaboration needed.”
The research team is developing an artificial retina that would effectively
replace the destroyed rods and cones in the eye as the light receptor and optical
signal converter. A tiny camera and radio-frequency transmitter on the patient's
glasses capture images and transmit the information to the microchip. The image
is then transmitted as electrical pulses to the retina via an array of implanted
electrodes. From there, the information is processed and passed along to the
brain. To date, six volunteers have received implants of a micro-electronic
device that rests on the surface of the retina to p erform the function of
normal photoreceptive cells.
“The Department of Energy has led the way to many scientific breakthroughs,
especially when several scientific disciplines combined to make a whole greater
than the sum of the parts,” Secretary Abraham said. “This project is
one such example where biology, physics, and engineering have joined forces
to deliver a capability that will enable blind people to see. This agreement
between the DOE laboratories and the private sector will facilitate transfer
of many aspects of DOE technology to a clinical device that has the potential
of restoring sight to millions of blind individuals.”
“The artificial retina is very appealing to scientists because it contributes
to improving the way of life for people,” said materials scientist Orlando
Auciello, Argonne's principal investigator. “Having the ability
to see is something too many people take for granted.”
Argonne's role in the project plays a critical part in the success of the
electrode implants. Auciello and his colleague John A. Carlisle created a novel
application for the patented ultrananocrystalline diamond technology developed
at Argonne for the packaging of implantable electronics and as electrode material.
The scientific and technological bases of ultrananocrystalline diamond films
were developed by a large group of researchers in the Surface Science group
in Argonne's Materials Science Division.
According to Auciello, ultrananocrystalline diamond is a material with a unique
combination of properties such as the highest hardness of any diamond film
demonstrated today, an extremely low friction coefficient and surface adhesion,
very high electron emission, chemical inertness, extremely high conductivity
when doped with nitrogen, biocompatibility, and surface functionalization.
All these properties are the result of the unique microstructure of ultrananocrystalline
diamond, characterized by grains that are two to five nanometers in size (a
nanometer is about 10,000 times narrower than a human hair).
Artificial retina research began with Mark Humayun, then at Johns Hopkins
University. Later, he teamed with Eli Greenbaum at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
when he began working at the Intraocular Retinal Prosthesis Group at Doheny
Retina Institute at the University of Southern California. After approaching
a number of national laboratories and universities, it was arranged that each
institute would work on a different aspect of the artificial retina project.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory manages the project and testing the various
technologies developed at each institute. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
is studying the use of electrode arrays coated in rubber. Los Alamos National
Laboratory is developing optical measuring techniques for neural activity.
Sandia National Laboratories is developing electrodes made of silicon, using
a microfabrication technique which makes small parts of metal, plastic or ceramics,
to produce microelectromechanical systems such as tiny actuators and sensors.
The University of Southern California implants the electrodes and tests their
effectiveness. North Carolina State University in Raleigh is leading the development
of the in situ medical electronics.
The Energy Department's Office of Science plans to fund the artificial retina
project at $20 million over the next three years. The department funds the
project as part of its medical applications technology program. DOE and its
predecessor agencies have been in the forefront of imaging sciences including
clinical imaging in nuclear medicine and imaging atoms at synchrotron light
sources. The National Institutes
of Health and the National
Science Foundation are also supporting the project.
Argonne National Laboratory brings
the world's brightest scientists and engineers together to find exciting and
creative new solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology.
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic
and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne
researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities,
and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific
problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for
a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed
by UChicago
Argonne, LLC for
the U.S.
Department of Energy's Office
of Science.
For more information, please
contact Steve McGregor (630/252-5580 or media@anl.gov)
at Argonne.
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