My mother has AMD. My grandmother was blind. >> My grandfather, he was an aerospace engineer. He was also a photographer. And so I remember going from like being taught to develop film in a dark room to him losing his sight. >> Macular degeneration is the most common condition that people suffer from. Um probably from the age of 55, 60 onwards. Everyone knows someone who has macular degeneration. We call it AMD. the cells just gradually melt away and they lose their central vision. >> Like if you put your hands in 10 cmters in a distance in front of your eye, you can see the periphery. So I can see that there's a person there. But if I want to have some details, it's impossible. It means they can't recognize faces. They cannot read anymore. They can't drive a car. >> It interferes with every aspect of life. >> Previous attempts only achieved slowing of the disease progression. No improvement. What's that though? >> Visual prosthesis to restore vision to the blind have been a big like prize for like many I mean arguably centuries. There have been many companies that have built uh implants. There have been many companies that have pursued gene therapies, drugs. All had very serious trade-offs. None have really lived up to the potential. >> Telling them there's nothing available is is heartbreaking. That's what it has been in the past. Yeah. Yeah. >> The general perception around 30 years ago is that this was never going to work. We rely on vision more than anything else. About 40% of the brain power is used for processing visual information. It also a window into the brain. He is a frontier of science. Now I work on retinal prostthesis since 2004. This project is actually my longest and most challenging and most rewarding. I found this project about vision restoration and I dedicated my life to it. I started my research with my PhD. The professor told me, "Yeah, Mr. Hornik for this project you need to have 10 years and 10 million Deutsche mark. >> How long have you been working on it? >> About 29 29 years now. >> It was a hard work to come from light perception to reading. This took decades. The beginning we thought it's easy. You stimulate at a certain region on the on the retina and then the patient sees some patterns. Among the key question we found were what level of resolution what is the accuracy of the image you need to propose so that the brain would be able to use this information. We came to solutions in terms of electrodes in terms of stimulation strategy that created this pattern recognition where we are right now. Evolving technologies made it possible to come up with Daniel Palanka's lab in a 2x2 mm small chip that has many pixels on it that convert light into electrical simuli. >> One of the things that makes Prima special is the the fact that it's powered by light. The implant itself is essentially an array of tiny solar panels. The eye is still there. The optic nerve is intact. The brain knows how to see, but the eye is no longer light sensitive. The device replaces a function of photo receptors that are lost in retinal degeneration. Our patients see form vision and not just light. >> About 10 years ago, they were saying they have this device and it's now being tested. >> That's the perfect safety. >> As we started our clinical trials, we thought it's will be impossible to find volunteers to do research there. It was the opposite. Many people who said yes. The trial was run across many European countries. >> We implanted 38 patients, 20 hospitals. >> Prima needed to have a procedure that was something you could easily do in your standard practice. The aim was to try and partially restore vision. 4 weeks later after the implantation, the devices have been switched on. We adjust the parameters of the device mechanically and electrically. And then the patient learn how to use the device and learn how to see. >> When you're running drug trials and things, we have to demonstrate that there's a certain improvement in the numbers and levels of vision to offer patients meaningful benefit that will then lead to a meaningful improvement in quality of life. That's what's been running for the last number of years. >> Patients are very excited, was very proud about this. The trial has essentially demonstrated that over 3/4 of patients have reached that improvement which is quite remarkable. Some of our patients are able to fill in cross word puzzles. This is a very complex task. >> When I saw a patient pick up a regular book and they were able to read the text quite fluently, it's jaw-dropping. Perm vision means that when you glance at something without any scanning, you see a form. You see a shape of a letter, face and so on. As opposed to source of light that you have to scan over time and that was characteristic to many other implants in the past. In our case, it's instantaneous form vision, which is key for fast perception. And we see that our patients indeed can read and write. People had never gotten these types of clinical trial results before in humans. People had never gotten a form vision image in the mind's eye of a blind patient before who was unable to recognize faces. And that that blew us away. That was a major advance. >> This publication in the New England Journal of Medicine is a huge confirmation of all the work that we have done in the last 20 years. >> Now that the trial has demonstrated these results, next step is trying to get it to our patients. It's so beautiful to see that you give vision back to people. The impact is enormous for these patients. >> The more important is the level of energy it gives you to continue because the most important is that this is not the end of the story. I remember one patient telling me, I thought my eyes were dead and now they are still alive. My eyes are still alive. one of her very first patients. I remember after she was switched on, she was a bit tearary and she says that u Mr. Mucket, I know you um didn't want to promise me too much, but what you've given me uh from my age, in my time in life, I'll be ever grateful for that, you know. And she's like a grandmother, had a huge family. Um and um and she said, "I can see again." I thought, you know, I'm a bit emotional now cuz she was, you know, uh one of our patients. So,