The DOE Artificial Retina Project is a multi-institutional collaborative effort to develop and implant a device containing an array of microelectrodes into the eyes of people blinded by retinal disease. The ultimate goal is to design a device with hundreds to a thousand microelectrodes. This resolution will help restore limited vision that enables reading, unaided mobility, and facial recognition.

A first implantable device

The DOE project builds on the foundational work of its leader, Mark Humayun at the Doheny Eye Institute of the University of Southern California. In a breakthrough operation performed in 2002, a team led by Humayun successfully implanted the first device of its kind—an array containing 16 microelectrodes—into the eye of a patient who had been blind for more than 50 years. Since then, 5 additional volunteers have had devices implanted, all with encouraging results. This device now enables patients to distinguish light from dark and localize large objects.

For more information, see

• How the Artificial Retina Works
• Patient Stories
• Who is eligible for an artificial retina implant?

Integrating revolutionary DOE technologies for useful vision

Achieving the quantum improvements in resolution needed for useful vision requires the integration of revolutionary technologies such as those developed at DOE national laboratories. In 1999, the Doheny group began collaborating with researchers at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who were also working on approaches for restoring sight to the blind. Shortly thereafter they began to evaluate technologies at several other national laboratories as well.

To speed the design and development of better models, in 2004 Doheny and DOE (including six of its national laboratories), two other universities, and Second Sight Medical Products Inc. (a private-sector company) signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement. Under the agreement, the institutions will jointly share intellectual property rights and royalties from their research. This will spur progress by freeing the researchers to share details of their work with collaborators.

Three models in testing and development

DOE supports the design, construction, and some preclinical (nonhuman) testing of the devices. Funding is for research in the following areas:

• Neuroscience imaging studies on Model 1
• Some preclinical animal studies of Model 2
• Design and fabrication studies of Model 3

Over the past several years, the DOE Office of Science project has grown from a pilot funded at $500,000 (FY 1999) to a full-scale effort with current support of $6.8 million (FY 2007).

Synergies with others

Doheny also receives other federal funding to support and extend the work on the retinal and other neural prostheses. The National Eye Institute of the National Institutes of Health, for example, supports fundamental and applied research related to the prosthesis.

Additionally, the National Science Foundation provides funding for the longer-term goals of further enhancing the retinal prosthesis and adapting the technologies to treat a wide range of other neurological disorders. For example, researchers are studying how the foundational concepts used to create the retinal prosthetic can be used to reanimate paralyzed limbs and even restore short- and long-term memory for stroke and dementia (as in Alzheimer’s disease). For more details, see Biomimetic MicroElectronic Systems.

Worldwide projects

Other retinal prostheses projects are under way in the United States and world-wide, including Germany, Japan, Ireland, Australia, Korea, China, and Belgium. These programs pursue many different designs and surgical approaches. Some show great promise for the future, but have yet to demonstrate practicality in terms of adapting to and lasting long-term in a human eye. Thus far the projects that have progressed to clinical (human) trials are the collaborative DOE effort, a project at Optobionics (Chicago), and two efforts in Germany at Intelligent Medical Implants AG and Retinal Implant AG. [For more information on worldwide projects, see Science 312, 1124-26 (2006).]