Never Say Never When It Comes To Technology!

I first heard the story of the Wright brothers when I was just a small boy; before space travel, color television, VCRs/DVDs, cell phones and well you get the picture.  It has always stood out in my mind; never say anything is impossible and always try to be prepared for what the next step in technology will bring us.  If you read my previous blog on Artificial Intelligence you know what I mean.  Now comes this little news clip I received today on an artificial eye.  After 30 years in vision care I still did not believe we would ever be able to untangle the complexity of linking millions of nerve fibers accurately enough to connect a mechanical eye to the brain and produce a meaningful picture.  Now it appears this technology is almost here. One hundred years of flying and look where it's taken us, what will the next hundred bring us for vision and health?  Just make sure to never say never!

WEILL CORNELL MEDICAL COLLEGE RESEARCHERS

MAKE BLIND MOUSE RETINAS SEE.

Two researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College have deciphered a mouse's retina's neural code and coupled this information to a novel prosthetic device to restore sight to blind mice. Furthermore, the researchers say they've also cracked the code for a monkey brain, which is essentially identical to that of a human. They hope to quickly design and test a device that blind humans can use. While current prosthetics provide blind users with spots and edges of light to help them navigate, this novel device provides the code to restore normal vision. The code is so accurate that it can allow facial features to be discerned and allow animals to track moving images. The researchers' work was reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to lead researcher Dr. Sheila Nirenberg, “Not only is it necessary to stimulate large numbers of cells, but they also have to be stimulated with the right code–the code the retina normally uses to communicate with the brain.” She says that the findings of the recent research show that the critical ingredients for building a highly effective retinal prosthetic–the retina's code and a high resolution stimulating method–are now, to a large extent, in place and that her retinal prosthetic will need to undergo human clinical trials, especially to test safety of the gene therapy component, which delivers the light–sensitive protein.