Implantable Visual Prostheses for the Completely Blind

Wednesday, Sept 26, 2018 7 PM
CLU Gilbert Sports and Fitness Center, 130 Overton Court, rooms 253/254 (second floor)

For the past 19 years, Second Sight Medical Products has been developing visual prostheses for people suffering from complete loss of vision. The Argus II was developed and commercialized to provide a therapy for people who have lost their sight due to genetic diseases of the outer retina, primarily retinitis pigmentosa. Currently, there are more than 55 implanting centers worldwide and above 300 people have been implanted. The Argus II has been shown to be an effective and extremely reliable device with early implants still operating normally after 10+ years. The Argus II requires that there exist surviving ganglion cells in the retina to stimulate. For people with more extensive damage to their retinas or optic nerves, the Orion 1 cortical visual prosthesis was developed. To date, 4 subjects have been implanted in a 5 subject human early feasibility study. No adverse events have occurred and initial patient testing looks very promising. Engineering challenges and patient testing results will be presented for both the Argus II and Orion 1 implants.

Dr. Nick Talbot

Dr. Nick Talbot has worked on implantable neurostimulation devices, including cochlear implants and visual prostheses since 1993. Hired in 1998 as the third employee of Second Sight, he was a major contributor to the development of the first commercial, permanently implantable, wireless retinal prosthesis, the Argus II. More recently Nick led the design team that developed the Orion 1, a permanently implantable, wireless cortical visual prosthesis which is now in an Early Feasibility Clinical Study. Nick was involved with all mechanical engineering aspects of the development of the Argus II and Orion 1 implants from conception through to clinically deployable device.

Nick received his BS, MS, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering, with an emphasis in micro-technology for medical devices, from the University of California at Berkeley.