Science Corporation implants PRIMA vision chip in first Stargardt patient

In short: Science Corporation says it implanted its PRIMA vision chip in its first patient with Stargardt disease, and the patient showed early reading progress in rehab.

What happened

Science Corporation CEO Max Hodak announced that the company has implanted PRIMA, a small chip designed to restore some vision, in its first patient with Stargardt disease. Stargardt disease is an inherited eye condition that slowly destroys central vision, the part you use to read and recognize faces.

The implant was done in May as part of an ongoing clinical trial at Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia, the company said. During the patient’s first rehabilitation session, he saw a letter, and during the second session, he was able to read a word.

Here is how the system works, in simple terms. Doctors place a tiny chip in the back of the eye, where the damaged light sensing cells used to work. Then the patient wears glasses with a camera, and the camera sends images to the chip, which acts like artificial light sensors (like swapping out broken pixels in a screen).

Hodak said the current implant is 2 millimeters by 2 millimeters. He compared the experience to looking through a straw, with a small patch of sharp, high contrast black and white vision rather than full color, wide view sight.

Why it matters

Stargardt disease is currently considered incurable, and the company estimates about 150,000 people worldwide have lost vision from it. While these early results are limited and come from a trial setting, they suggest that an implant and camera system may help some people regain useful central vision for basic tasks like reading. Hodak also said this work connects to Science Corporation’s longer term plan for brain computer interfaces, meaning devices that help nerves send signals, not just tools for controlling a computer.

Source: TechCrunch AI