NEW ISRAELI TECHNOLOGY TO HELP PEOPLE BLINDED BY RETINITIS PIGMENTOSA TO SEE AGAIN

Israel21c.org reported that about one in 4,000 people in the United States suffers from retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a genetic disease of the retina that causes light-sensing cells to degenerate and eventually leads to vision impairment. Symptoms might start as night blindness.

Recent advances in optogenetics have opened the possibility of restoring light sensitivity to vision cells using a simple injection and gene-based therapy.

Israeli researchers from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa have found a futuristic and bionic way to bypass neural circuitry and directly stimulate restored vision cells with a computer-driven technique called holography.

The researchers have developed a tool to photo-stimulate retinal cells with precision and high resolution, suggesting that one day in the not-so-distant future, people blinded by RP may see beyond shadows once again.

Professor Shai Shoham from the Technion explains, “Optogenetics is a young technology, but it is firmly established and the potential is recognized. What is missing, and what we are offering, is a powerful solution driving the neural networks of these optogenetically restored cells. The system drives the projection of ‘movies’ powerful enough to stimulate retina cells artificially.”

The researchers plan to develop a prosthetic headset that looks like the new Google glass, or create an eyepiece that would translate visual scenes into light, which would stimulate the genetically altered cells.

“You need to be careful with these things so the technology doesn’t run ahead of us,” Shoham cautions. “The system we are working on can potentially restore vision that is very high quality. But it will take at least five to 10 years.”