Bionic eyes within reach after implantation in sheep
Bionic eyes promise to restore sight to many blind people. The application of bionic eyes in humans has come a lot closer after a successful animal experiment.
Sheep are nothing special in Australia. Yet there was something special about this group of sheep. For three months, this small flock of sheep was fitted with bionic, artificial eyes. These had been surgically implanted behind the retina of their eyes.
Bionic eyes now ready for human trials
The sheep is part of a medical trial at the University of Sydney, which aims to restore sight to people who suffer from a certain type of blindness.
The bionic eye, the Phoenix 99, is pictured above. It hadn’t been tested before, and the researchers wanted to know if these artificial eyes would also elicit rejection or other adverse biological responses. At the end of the trial, these negative effects were not found, which is why they now dare to take clinical trials. That is, they are tried on humans.
Spectacular new possibilities
The bionic eye works with the help of glasses. These glasses contain a small camera that transmits the images to the implant. That in turn produces electrical signals, which are captured by the nerves behind the retina.
Star Trek enthusiasts, of course, knew Geordi la Forge with a “visor” that replaced his eyes. This Star Trek vision of a bionic eye has now come a little closer. Good news for the 2.2 billion people on the planet who suffer from impaired vision.
Here in the rich West, these are mainly the elderly. River blindness is a huge problem in Africa. Vitamin A deficiency also causes many eye problems. For all these groups, life is a lot better if they can see well again.
If you replaced the camera of the bionic eye with, for example, a thermal camera, a UV camera or a radio antenna, a new world would literally open up for you. So this could be very big.
