Under an ambitious, $9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research, researchers are attempting to help blind people see again. They hope to create 1,000 points of light through 1,000 tiny microelectromechanical systems (MEMs) electrodes. The technical team involved in the project includes four other national labs, a private company and two universities.
The electrodes will be positioned on the retinas of those blinded by diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. These diseases damage rods and cones in the eye that normally convert light to electrical impulses, but leave intact the neural paths to the brain that transport electrical signals. Eventually, the input from rods and cones ceases, but 70 to 90 percent of nerve structures set up to receive those inputs remain intact.