Oxford Student Creates First Synthetic Retina for the Visually Impaired
From: Medical Design Technology - 05/05/2017

A synthetic, soft tissue retina developed by an Oxford University student
could offer fresh hope to visually impaired people.

Vanessa Restrepo-Schild led the team in the development of a new synthetic,
double layered retina which closely mimics the natural human retinal process.
The retina replica consists of soft water droplets (hydrogels) and biological
cell membrane proteins. Designed like a camera, the cells act as pixels,
detecting and reacting to light to create a grey scale image.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, shows that unlike
existing artificial retinal implants, the cell-cultures are created from
natural, biodegradable materials and do not contain foreign bodies or living
entities. In this way the implant is less invasive than a mechanical devise,
and is less likely to have an adverse reaction on the body.

Read the entire article at:
https://www.mdtmag.com/news/2017/05/oxford-student-creates-first-synthetic-retina-visually-impaired

Links:
Vanessa Restrepo-Schild
http://bayley.chem.ox.ac.uk/vrestreposchild

Oxford student creates first synthetic retina
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-05-04-oxford-student-creates-first-synthetic-retina

First Synthetic Retina Created for the Visually Impaired
http://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/05/first-synthetic-retina-created-visually-impaired

Light-Patterned Current Generation in a Droplet Bilayer Array
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep46585

Related:
Bright Future Expected for Bionic Eye Developments
https://www.mdtmag.com/article/2016/01/bright-future-expected-bionic-eye-developments

New Implants Aimed At Combating Retinal Degeneration
https://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/blog/2017/03/new-implants-aimed-combating-retinal-degeneration

Scientists Will Soon Start Trials for Fully Implantable Bionic Eye
https://www.mdtmag.com/videos/2016/01/scientists-will-soon-start-trials-fully-implantable-bionic-eye