Science Corp Implants Vision-Restoring Chip in First Stargardt Disease Patient

Science Corporation has implanted its PRIMA vision-restoring chip into its first patient suffering from Stargardt disease, an inherited and currently incurable condition that gradually destroys central vision. The patient received the 2-millimeter implant during a one-hour procedure in May at the Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia. By his second rehabilitation session, the patient was successfully able to read a word using the implant, which functions as artificial photoreceptors delivering high-contrast, black-and-white visual signals. The system pairs the surgical implant with camera-equipped glasses that transmit views of the world directly to the chip in the back of the eye. While PRIMA is already commercially available in Europe for geographic atrophy, Science Corporation plans to test a next-generation device in humans next year to expand the field of view toward native acuity. "The device that this patient has is a two millimeter by two millimeter implant placed under the in the back of the eye, and so it’s like looking through a straw. It is not a big field of view color vision. It’s a patch in their central vision where . . .it’s black and white, but it is sharp." — Max Hodak