Cited by 183Neuroscience and Neural EngineeringRetinal Development and DisordersCCD and CMOS Imaging Sensors

Design and validation of a foldable and photovoltaic wide-field epiretinal prosthesis

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Ferlauto, Laura, Airaghi Leccardi, Marta Jole Ildelfonsa, Chenais, Naïg Aurelia Ludmilla, Gilliéron, Samuel Charles Antoine, Vagni, Paola, Bevilacqua, Michele, Wolfensberger, Thomas J., Sivula, Kevin +1 more·2018·Nature Communications

Abstract

Retinal prostheses have been developed to fight blindness in people affected by outer retinal layer dystrophies. To date, few hundred patients have received a retinal implant. Inspired by intraocular lenses, we have designed a foldable and photovoltaic wide-field epiretinal prosthesis (named POLYRETINA) capable of stimulating wireless retinal ganglion cells. Here we show that within a visual angle of 46.3 degrees, POLYRETINA embeds 2215 stimulating pixels, of which 967 are in the central area of 5 mm, it is foldable to allow implantation through a small scleral incision, and it has a hemispherical shape to match the curvature of the eye. We demonstrate that it is not cytotoxic and respects optical and thermal safety standards; accelerated ageing shows a lifetime of at least 2 years. POLYRETINA represents significant progress towards the improvement of both visual acuity and visual field with the same device, a current challenging issue in the field.

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Crossref · 10.1038/s41467-018-03386-7

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  • Achieving a Smart Bionic Eye will require engineering next-generation visual prostheses with large electrode counts and developing sophisticated AI systems.

    “Achieving this ambitious goal will certainly require the engineering of next-generation visual prostheses with large electrode counts (Ferlauto et al., 2018; Shah and Chichilnisky, 2020; Chen et al., 2020) and the development of sophisticated AI systems.”
  • POLYRETINA is a high-density wide-field epiretinal prosthesis containing 10,498 photovoltaic pixels distributed over an active area of approximately 43°.

    “POLYRETINA is a high-density wide-field epiretinal prosthesis containing 10 498 photovoltaic pixels distributed over an active area of approximately 43 • [38,39,131,132].”
  • POLYRETINA is a foldable and injectable photovoltaic epiretinal prosthesis that can be safely delivered with a 6 mm size cut through the sclera and conform better to the curvature of the eye.

    “To overcome this issue, POLYRETINA is a foldable and injectable photovoltaic epiretinal prosthesis that can be safely delivered with a 6 mm size cut through the sclera and conform better to the curvature of the eye [39,38].”
  • New developments in organic bioelectronics and photovoltaics showed superior features in conformability, flexibility and stretchability compared to silicon-based technology.

    “In particular, new developments in organic bioelectronics and photovoltaics showed superior features in conformability, flexibility and stretchability [38,39] compared to silicon-based technology.”
  • The fabricated PDMS-interface and dome-shaped PDMS enable matching with the curvature of the eye.

    “The fabricated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-interface and of the dome-shaped PDMS enable to match with the curvature of the eye [Fig.1(e)].”

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Authors
Ferlauto, L., Airaghi Leccardi, M. J. I., Chenais, N. A. L., Gilliéron, S. C. A., Vagni, P., Bevilacqua, M., Wolfensberger, T. J., Sivula, K., & Ghezzi, D.
Affiliations
  • École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
  • Hôpital Ophtalmique Jules-Gonin (CH)
Corresponding author
Ghezzi, Diego
Venue
Nature Communications
Published
2018-03-08
Volume
9
Issue
1
Pages
992-992
ISSN
2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2791025612
Cited by
183
References
48
Citations by year
2026: 13 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 3 · 2016: 1
FWCI
8.20
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • IRIS (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
  • Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • Velux Stiftung
  • European Commission (701632)
  • École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
  • Fondation Pierre Mercier
  • Fondation Pierre Mercier pour la Science
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neural Engineering
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Retinal Development and Disorders
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › CCD and CMOS Imaging Sensors
Keywords
epiretinal prosthesis, blindness, accelerated aging, visual field restoration, visual acuity
MeSH terms
Humans, Prosthesis Design, Retina, Visual Acuity, Prosthesis Implantation, Visual Prosthesis

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