Visual restoration : validations of the photovoltaic retinal prosthesis and of optogenetic therapy in non-human primates

Blindness can result from the loss of photoreceptors in retinal dystrophies or age-related macular degeneration. Electrical activation of the residual retinal neurons can restore some visual function in blind patients. However, the perception provided by current retinal prostheses does not allow face recognition or autonomous motion in an unknown environment. To reach these goals, Serge Picaud and his team have assessed from a functional point of view the new photovoltaic retinal implants and  optogenetic therapy. Both strategies were validated on non-human primates to speed up their translation to clinical trials. The talk will present these recent and unpublished results for restoring high quality vision.  

Bio:
Serge Picaud is a Principal Investigator at the  Paris Vision Institute.  He holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Marseille and learned retinal pathophysiology and electrophysiology at the Max-Planck Institute for Brain Research (Frankfurt, Germany) and at UC Berkeley, respectively.  Serge has worked on photoreceptor physiology prior to studying their pharmacological neuroprotection to finally investigate strategies for their substitution.