Artificial retina could help blind people see after successful trials on mice

SIGHT has been restored to blind mice with a newly developed artifical retina which scientists believe could be adapted for human use within a decade.

The device, which could help millions of people with incurable eye disease, has been developed by neuroscientists at Cornell University in New York.

The retina is the light-sensitive tissue in the eye which captures and processes images of the world around us and transmits them to the brain as electrical impulses.

The implant mimics the behaviour of the retina and enabled the previously blind mice to discern facial features, including a baby’s face, and visually track an image.

Lead author of the study, Professor Sheila Nirenberg said: “The approach is to bypass the damaged tissue and provide direct stimulation to the surviving cells, driving them to send visual information to the brain.”

Better understanding of the way visual signals are encoded into electrical impulses allowed Prof Nirenberg and her team to produce a system which delivered higher resolution images than previous devices.

Scottish scientists are also playing an important role in the effort to develop retinal implants to restore sight.

Dr Keith Mathieson of Strathclyde University is working with colleagues at Stanford University and the University of California Santa Cruz, designing and manufacturing simple, easy to implant devices.