Bringing Sight To The Blind.

Dr. Mark Humayun has seen the world . Now he's helping others see it too
with the creation of an artificial retina.

Dr. Humanyun (Ph.D biomedical engineering, M.D. opthalmology)
has been named 2005 Innovator Of The Year by R&D magazine. The August
2005 issue has an excellent article about him and his research. Of
interest to me was that his grandmother inspired him to become an eye
surgeon and to specifically tackle the challenge of blindness. "My
grandmother went blind with diabetic retinopathy and that was my impetus
to get into opthalmology", he recalled.

So far he has implanted six patients, one as long as three years, with
the Model One implant. It consists of a small external camera to
transmit images to a 4mm x 5mm array with 16 electrodes. It is implanted
in the retina where the photoreceptors rods and cones are and it
transmits electrical pulses to the intact neural paths of the patient,
which in turn transmit the signals to the brain, allowing for sight.

The Model Two implant will have 60 electrodes and the Model Three will
have 1000 electrodes and both are on the drawing board. A number of
challenges must be overcome including the placement of the device on the
retina within 50 microns, about the size of a red blood cell.  But
solutions are being developed. See the full article for more details.

George