Serge Picaud
Institut de la vision, France
Title: Visual restoration by retinal prostheses and optogenetic therapy : Validation in nonhuman primates.
Biography
Biography: Serge Picaud
Abstract
Following photoreceptor loss, electrical activation of residual retinal neurons can restore some visual function in blind
patients. However, the perception provided by current devices does not allow face recognition or autonomous motion
in an unknown environment. At the Vision Institute in Paris, we have assessed new photovoltaic retinal implants and
optogenetic therapy on non-human primates to improve further current strategies for restoring vision. Using photovoltaic
implants, individual retinal ganglion cells were activated by infrared activation of a single 100μm pixel and not by its neighbors
indicating thereby high resolution of the device. In vivo, photoreceptors were found to degenerate below the implant due to
the retinal detachment from the retinal pigment epithelium. Behavioral studies confirmed the presence of a blind spot upon
normal visual stimulation at the implant position. However, infrared stimulations at the implant position induced saccades
indicating thereby visual perception generated by the infrared sensitive implants. In parallel, microbial opsins were expressed
in the non-human primate retina through gene therapy. Activation of the retinal ganglion cells with patterns and short pulse
durations (1-10 ms) demonstrated the potential use of this strategy for visual restoration up to 6 months post injection. These
new results demonstrate efficacy on non-human primates for both photovoltaic implants and optogenetic therapy paving their
ways towards clinical trials.