High resolution retinal prothesis

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The potential of neurostimulation to improve quality of life for many is now recognized. Pacemakers (cardiac arrhythmia), cochlear implants (deafness), brain stimulators (Parkinson's treatment) and chronic pain relief are well established examples in the medical community. Visual prostheses, aimed at restoring visual acuity in blind patients, are still in their early stages for many reasons. Among them, the neuronal structure (detection, integration and differentiation) at the retina level, the network at the cerebral level, eye motion, the concave surface of the retina, and poor understanding of stimulation strategies are all elements adding to the complexity of developing an effective retinal simulation implant.**Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD) and Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) are the first pathologies targeted with retinal prostheses. In both cases, a dysfunction of rods and cones affects visual acuity, an impairment which will affect 200M people by 2020. The medical neuromodulation space is set to reach $25B. The growth of the ophthalmology sub-market is forecast at 98%, reaching $1B by 2022.**This project aims to develop, in collaboration with iBIONICS Inc, (Ottawa, Canada) and the participation of the University of Melbourne (Australia) and the University of Ottawa (Canada), the first generation of high acuity retinal prosthesis. The latter is based on a high-density neurostimulator comprising an integrated circuit, along with its ancillary electronics, encapsulated in a hermetic diamond package. Unlike other retinal prostheses relying on an inductive link for transmitting both the power and data, the proposed prosthesis is based on a laser beam combined with a pupil tracker, thus avoiding the eyeball motion problem and the need to run wires, breaching both the hermiticity of the biocompatible package and the eyewall itself. The flexible stimulator architecture will support any stimulation pattern thanks to a fully programmable approach, and can thus support future exploration of stimulation strategies, making the prosthesis a wonderful research tool, as well as an excellent choice for recovering vision for people with AMD or RP.