Innovative graphene-based retinal implants to restore vision, part of the project Adaptive Retinal Implant Technology for Vision Restoration (i-VISION), have been awarded a million euro la Caixa Health Research Grant.
The i-VISION project is led by the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2) in Barcelona, a BIST center. The work is the follow-up of the BIST Ignite THEIA project, in which the ICN2, IFAE, ICFO and Barraquer Ophthalmological Center began their research into this new generation of retinal prostheses. THEIA was awarded funding through two successive BIST Ignite grants, in 2016 and in 2017.
The goal of the i-VISION project is to develop a retinal prosthesis technology capable of providing high-acuity artificial vision to people blinded by outer retina layer diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. In spite of the progressive degeneration of photoreceptor cells caused by these retinal diseases, the neurons responsible for conveying information to the brain remain alive. Retinal prosthesis systems process images of the outside world recorded by a camera and stimulate these neurons by means of electrodes to re-create vision. However, the quality of restored vision in current retinal prostheses is quite limited.
The i-VISION project aims to improve this technology with the expertise of an interdisciplinary team from research and clinical centers. The tools to overcome the difficulties of producing such innovative retinal prosthesis come from expertise in nanomaterials, electronics and microscopy provided by the ICN2, the Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE), and The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), three BIST centers, and the physiological knowledge and clinical know-how brought by the Barraquer Foundation and the Institut de la Vision (University of Sorbonne). ICREA Prof. Jose Antonio Garrido, Group Leader and Vice-Director of the ICN2, is the Project Leader and stresses that we will seek to implement thousands of small-diameter electrodes and increasingly more sophisticated stimulation protocols that can adapt to the patients’ needs.
The electrode material interfacing with retinal neurons will be based on graphene, to enable the use of more and smaller high-performing electrodes capable of bidirectional (recording and stimulation) communication with the retina. The microelectronics of the prosthesis will implement closed-loop adaptive stimulation strategies and novel wireless technology to power the implant and transmit the electrical stimulus. Advanced in vitro and in vivo imaging and recording techniques will be used to create a personalized map of retina-visual cortex interconnectivity, and thereby optimize the visual acuity restored by the retinal prosthesis.
The developed technology is expected to provide immediate benefits to retinal prosthesis patients, and may later serve as a standard carrier for the much broader field of neuroprosthetics.
This year’s la Caixa Health Research Grants are the second edition of a call aimed at fostering biomedical and health research projects with high social impact. The grants consist of 1 million euros for research consortia, as is the case with i-VISION, and half a million for individual institutions. A total of 22 projects have been selected out of 632 proposals, covering areas such as oncology, infectious diseases and neuroscience. The grantees have three years to turn their projects into meaningful results.