In September, Neuralink received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to accelerate the regulatory process for its vision technology, known as Blindsight. Last month, Science, led by former Neuralink CEO Max Hodak, announced the results of a clinical trial that showed partial vision restoration in patients suffering from age-related macular degeneration.
These companies have been joined by several other startups and academic researchers in their efforts to improve patients’ vision as implantable brain-machine interface technology gains more popularity, investors and regulatory acceptance. So far, Science has raised $150 million from investors and Neuralink has raised over $600 million.
Not only Neuralink and Science
Promising clinical trial results, however, should not make patients too hopeful about actually curing blindness. Xing Chen, assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pittsburgh and co-founder Phosphoenix BVwho is working on his own device, believes most people “will not be able to see again or use the implants every day for several years.”
Another startup working on technology to alleviate blindness is ReVisiona Belgian company is working on a system based on an implant and glasses with a built-in video camera.
A Spanish startup in September Inbrain announced that its graphene-based device has entered human brains, but for now Inbrain plans to focus its work on devices for the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Sight is also of interest to the company.
Various action strategies
Startups aiming to restore vision have adopted various strategies. In Science, scientists are developing an implant that is placed directly in the eye, under the retina. Science’s system, called Prima, received “breakthrough” status from the FDA last year, which is intended to shorten the regulatory timeline. This is the same designation that Neuralink announced for Blindsight and which was also awarded in 2020 for brain implants.
In the long term, scientists believe that the best way to improve vision will be work in the visual cortex, not the retinabecause the visual cortex is larger, which allows for the introduction of more electrodes and the possibility of improving resolution
Big ambitions
Technology to restore vision has a long history, and efforts to improve vision using electrodes implanted on or in the visual cortex have been in development since the 1970s. Generally speaking, patients may see blurry flashes instead of sharp images after treatment. Still, many claim that even these flashes improve their quality of life.
Little is known about Blindsight, a project at Neuralink Musk, but his technology promises to be one of the most ambitious. Dan Adams, the company’s chief scientist, said in academic presentations that Neuralink will place electrodes on both sides of the visual cortexusing the latest generation of high-electrode device. The company, which first said it was targeting vision about two years ago, is recruiting patients, including those with vision loss, in the US, Canada and the UK.
