The Quest to Restore Sight to Those with Retinal Disease

Thanks to science, physicians can already restore vision for many people. Patients with cornea issues can be given transplants, and cataracts can be removed, but a cure for most degenerative diseases like Retinitis Pigmentosa or RP still have yet to be conquered.

Research is looking at many different techniques to find ways to bring back sight to people like me. Gene therapy is one option, but for RP in particular, there are so many forms of the disease that pinpointing the gene in each person may be very difficult. Since this is the case, researchers at Second Sight Medical Products Inc. are working on an artificial retina called Argus II. The Argus II uses 60 electrodes to send messages to the brain that the retina can no longer because of cell death. At this point, patients who have received the surgery are able to see shapes, colors, and objects. Their vision is still not very clear, but all of the participants in the study had no vision when they started the process, so having any vision is amazing. The company hopes that in a few years 60 electrodes will become over 1000, and that this device will one day make it so that the blind can read and possibly drive.

Here are links to two articles profiling to of the studies participants. The first is about Dean Lloyd, an attorney from Palo Alto California, and the second is about Ron from England. Both of these men are seeing things they haven't seen in years.

This research makes me very hopeful, and I believe that science will be able to restore my sight in my lifetime.>