(The picture above is taken from NoCamels.com and is of the youngest blind person to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.)
It was reported back in 2011 by NoCamels.com that an Israeli start-up headed by serial inventor Yossi Gross, was in pursuit of finding a resolution for the 45 million people around the globe that are blind. In 2018, they are still at and have developed a nano chip that takes the place of a damaged retina in a patient.
The NR600 implant form Nano Retina. (courtesy of Nano-Retina.com)
The company, called Nano Retina, has fielded emails and calls for years from people desperate to find a solution for oncoming blindness or retinal degradation that will lead to blindness soon. The already blind are also hopeful that they could regain their sight and so are willing to fly anywhere to achieve this. Back then, the company recognized they were lucky to have people so readily willing to undergo trial implantation in the chance that it was the answer they have been longing for. Present day sees surgeries happening and the blind regaining vision. It is not a perfect vision as you and I might be seeing now, but it is a huge leap forward in restoring sight.
Nano Retina has come to be considered one of the most promising startups in the world of nano-technology, reports NoCamels. Now, 7 years from the original article, they show they have what it takes to make their goal a reality. The challenge of miniaturizing computer parts to be used in treatment and replacement of parts in the human body is the daunting mountain that they have faced and will continue to refine.
Yossi Gross and his employees are constantly developing and testing for the solution to blindness out of the Nano Retina offices in Hertzliya Pituach, Israel. The company has created an electric chip that will be implanted on the retina of the damaged eye and will be used as an alternate electric retina. Incredible progress has been made considering that a person who formerly could not make out any distinguishing shapes could now read, watch television, and recognize their surroundings. It would appear to them as a grainy, black, white and grey picture made by a thousand pixels.
For most patients, the problem begins and ends with the retina, the tissue found in the depth of the eyeball. The retina is where the light beams are converted to electric signals and sent to the brain where they are translated into an image. The problem for most cases of blindness is concentrated in a sensitive and tiny part of the retina, with a diameter of three millimeters, that is responsible for the eyes’ recognition of most objects.
Position of the implant in the eye. (pic courtesy of nano-retina.com)
This is where Nano Retina’s chip comes in. It is designed to replace this tiny key part, taking over what the retina would do and doing the job instead. An incredible element of this chip is that the light beams are not translated into computer language, but to the “language” used by the eye’s nerves to transmit information to the brain.
Raanan Gefen of Nano Retina says, “The challenge of developing an implant for the retina does not begin and end with the conversion of light into “electric signals. The retina is kind of an expansion of the brain, and a large part of image processing occurs there. After all, a healthy eye has 100 million light absorbers, but only a million nerves that go to the brain. Something is taking place there.”
Normal vision is composed of a million pixels, although 1,000 pixels are enough to recognize an image. A blind person can expect Nano Retina’s chip, with a size of 43xmm, to provide 600 pixels in its initial version. But its goal is eventually to reach 6,ooo pixels with full color capability.
Yossi Gross states his passion for nano-technology this way, “Medicines have adverse effects,” he says, “they flow throughout the whole body in an equal manner and are therefore hard to control. On the other hand, in the medical arena, implants are considered a better solution, as they can be controlled by the patient or doctor.”
Today, Nano Retina is performing surgeries and bringing sight to the blind. They describe the surgical procedure on their website and it is quite impressive as you can read below.
“Nano Retina’s implant contains all the required components that enable its full vision functionality in a single miniature chip.
The Nano Retina implant is inserted into the eye in a minimally invasive surgical procedure under local anesthesia in an ambulatory surgery with no need for hospitalization. The estimated procedure duration is less than 1 hour. The surgical procedure uses standard ophthalmic surgery methods and preparations up until the final step of the actual deployment of the implant just above the retina. Since the Nano Retina implant contains all the necessary functionalities to stimulate retinal nerves, there is no need for additional wiring outside the eye globe, resulting in a relatively low risk profile for the procedure and a fast healing and recovery time.
Following the implantation procedure, the stimulation parameters will be calibrated and optimized based on the patient’s individual needs and a team of low vision specialists will familiarize the patient with his new vision ability. The Nano Retina solution also allows patients to fine-tune different light settings at a push of a button.”
Israel never ceases to be a well spring of inspiration, innovation and technological marvel.
