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SUMMARY:DLN: Photovoltaic Restoration of Sight in Age-related Macular Dege
 neration\, Prof. Daniel Palanker (Stanford)
DTSTART:20211012T120000
DTEND:20211012T130000
DTSTAMP:20260916T153723Z
UID:25b3b27d3ab4a69d2cec732f77856cc8430618448278a9e82bb37b4c
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof Daniel Palanker\nAbstract\nRetinal degenerative diseases 
 lead to blindness due to loss of the photoreceptors\, while neurons in the
  “image-processing” inner retinal layers are relatively well preserved
 . Information can be reintroduced into the visual system using electrical 
 stimulation of the surviving inner retinal neurons.\nWe developed a photov
 oltaic substitute of photoreceptors\, which convert light into pulsed elec
 tric current\, stimulating the secondary retinal neurons. Visual informati
 on captured by a camera is projected onto the retina from augmented-realit
 y glasses using pulsed near-infrared (~880nm) light. This design avoids th
 e use of bulky electronics and wiring\, thereby greatly reducing the surgi
 cal complexity and allows scaling the number of electrodes to thousands.\n
 Preclinical studies demonstrated that prosthetic sight with subretinal imp
 lants preserves many features of natural vision\, including flicker fusion
 \, adaptation to static images\, antagonistic center-surround and non-line
 ar summation of subunits in receptive fields\, providing high spatial reso
 lution. Clinical trial in AMD patients confirmed that letter acuity closel
 y matches the 100 micrometers pixel size of the first generation of the PR
 IMA implant (Pixium Vision). Remarkably\, central prosthetic vision is per
 ceived simultaneously with the peripheral natural vision.\nTo reduce the p
 ixel size while providing sufficiently deep stimulation\, we are developin
 g various field shaping strategies. Grating acuity with 75\, 55 and 40 mic
 rometer pixels in rats matched the pixel pitch\, while with 20micrometers\
 , it reached their natural acuity limit of about 28 micrometers. Ease of i
 mplantation of these wireless arrays\, combined with high resolution\, ope
 ns the door to highly functional restoration of sight.\n\nBiography\nDanie
 l Palanker is a Professor of Ophthalmology and Director of the Hansen Expe
 rimental Physics Laboratory at Stanford University. He received MSc in Phy
 sics in 1984 from the Yerevan State University in Armenia\, and PhD in App
 lied Physics in 1994 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem\, Israel.\nDr
 . Palanker is working on optical and electronic technologies for diagnosti
 c\, therapeutic\, surgical and prosthetic applications\, primarily in opht
 halmology. In the field of biomedical optics\, these studies include inter
 ferometric imaging of neural signals\, and laser-tissue interactions with 
 applications to retinal laser therapy and to ocular surgery. In the field 
 of electro-neural interfaces\, Dr. Palanker is developing retinal prosthes
 is for restoration of sight to the blind and implants for electronic contr
 ol of organs.\nSeveral of his developments are in clinical practice world-
 wide: Pulsed Electron Avalanche Knife (PEAK PlasmaBlade\, Medtronic Inc.)\
 , Patterned Scanning Laser Photocoagulator (PASCAL\, Topcon Inc.)\, Femtos
 econd Laser System for Cataract Surgery (Catalys\, Johnson&Johnson)\, Neur
 al stimulator for enhanced tear secretion (TrueTear\, Allergan Inc.). Phot
 ovoltaic Retinal Prosthesis (PRIMA\, Pixium Vision) is in clinical trials.
LOCATION:https://epfl.zoom.us/j/61253018498
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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