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Science Corporation implants its vision-restoring chip in its first Stargardt disease patient
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Science Corporation has implanted its vision-restoring chip, PRIMA, into its first Stargardt disease patient, CEO Max Hodak announced at TechCrunch Disrupt. The patient received the implant in May during an ongoing trial at Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia. In his first rehabilitation session he saw a letter, and in the second he read a word.
Stargardt disease is an inherited eye disease that gradually destroys central vision. It affects the outer retina, killing light-sensing cells while potentially sparing the inner retina, which sends signals to the brain. About 150,000 people worldwide have lost vision to the disease, which is currently considered incurable.
PRIMA is already commercially available in Europe for patients with geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. The device is a 2-millimeter-by-2-millimeter chip implanted at the back of the eye, where photoreceptors have degenerated. Patients undergo an hourlong procedure and then wear camera-equipped glasses that transmit the visual world to the chip, which acts like artificial photoreceptors.
Hodak, a former president and co-founder of Neuralink, founded Science Corporation in 2021. He said the retina is part of the central nervous system, grouping cochlear implants, retinal prostheses, and motor prostheses as different types of brain-computer interfaces. He envisions BCIs expanding into broad medical technology rather than only computer control.
The current PRIMA experience remains limited. Hodak described the implant as providing a narrow, black-and-white, high-contrast patch of central vision, "like looking through a straw." Patients can see a few letters at a time, not a large field of color vision.
Science Corporation is working on a next-generation device expected to enter human testing within a year. Hodak said the company has a clear path and believes it can get "pretty close to native acuity" over the next five years. The company also plans a brain-computer interface sensor that rests on top of the brain, unlike Neuralink's device, which is inserted into brain tissue.
