Artificial Retina Impresses, But Is It Nanotechnology?

The Wall Street Journal’s online magazine Market Watch recently ran a story on two new approaches to overcoming degenerative eye diseases with artificial retinas.

The story came across my desk by virtue of the fact that one of the companies goes by the name Nano Retina. The Israel-based company is a joint venture between Rainbow Medical and Zyvex Labs, the latter being well known for its work in nanotechnology and its founder Jim Von Ehr who has been a strong proponent of molecular mechanosynthesis.

Both Nano Retina’s and its competitor Second Sight’s approaches to providing a solution to disease-caused blindness impressed me, and the Wall Street Journal was intrigued to see that, “The number of blind persons in the U.S. is projected to increase by 70% to 1.6 million by 2020, with a similar rise projected for low vision,” according to a 2004 paper prepared by a research group led by a Johns Hopkins University professor, Nathan Congdon. In other words, a growth sector, which always pleases investors.

But I wanted to know what was the nanotechnology in the “Nano” Retina. It turned out not to be an easy task. There was the video from the company website below that explained that the implantable device contained “nanoelectrodes”.

 

The written information on the company did not shine any further light on the subject. The video does seem to claim some pretty amazing capabilities for these nanoelectrodes. Apparently these electrodes “interface with the eye’s bipolar neurons” and restart neural stimulation allowing for messages to go to the brain.

I have to confess I would like to know more, but I’m sure this is all highly proprietary information for a company that doesn’t expect to even start clinical trials until 2013.

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http://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/artificial-retina-impresses-but-is-it-nanotechnology