On Richard Taylor’s office computer screen are vivid pictures that resemble the intricately designed paisley patterns that dominated the fashion world in the 1960s.@@http://directory.uoregon.edu/telecom/directory.jsp?p=findpeople%2Ffind_results&m=staff&d=person&b=name&s=Richard+Taylor@@
However, these pictures represent much more than an ode to Generation X. In fact, they may be a ray of hope for those who suffer from degenerative diseases that affect their vision, such as macular degeneration — a gradual loss of vision resulting from retina damage.
Taylor, a University physics professor, along with other researchers at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, is currently working to create a microchip that could replace a person’s retina and provide people with vision impairments the opportunity to regain their sense of sight — a challenge easier said than done.@@http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/@@
Taylor said the microchips being developed by the research team have an array of detectors that are able to capture light that comes into the eye and generate electrical signals that are then sent to a person’s brain to generate a vivid picture of what a person sees.
However, one of the largest obstacles the team faces is to create a structure on the microchip that resembles naturally occurring retina neurons that pass visual information to other nerves, since the current microchips have square-like structures the nerves do not recognize. It is in this particular area that nanoflowers of metallic elements offer a potential solution.
Nanoflowers — microscopic compound formations with structures that look like flowers when viewed under high-powered electron microscopes — have intricate branch-like structures that closely resemble a person’s nerves on their retina.
“We’re very excited, because a lot of our traditional electronics has been about putting it in with the idea of developing better computers, iPods and things like that,” Taylor said. “That’s all great, because we all like them, but we could probably get away without them. But if you have someone who is blind, then that’s a major restriction on their lives, so we’re really quite thrilled at the idea that we’ll be able to improve the quality of someone’s life with this chip.”
Though the microchips are currently undergoing clinical trials in the United States and Germany, Taylor said he is hopeful that the team will be able to grow and manipulate the nanoflowers on the surface of microchips more effectively, so that it will bear a closer resemblance to neurons that naturally appear on a person’s retina. Taylor said this project is the first time that nanoflowers have ever been considered in creating vision-related devices.
In all, Taylor expects the structure of the microchip interface to be perfected within the next five or 10 years — a timeline that clearly reflects the myriad complications that arise when the two seemingly different worlds of neuroscience and nanoelectronics are brought together.
“It’s double the challenges,” Taylor explained. “We do know for sure that the current chips work, and we do understand why they’re not working very well. We do know through mathematics and simulations that if we put our interface onto this thing, it will improve everything. Then, of course, you have the voyage of discovery where you have to find out whether it’s going to work or not.”
Though the devices would be designed to last throughout a person’s lifetime without having to be replaced or fixed, Taylor said another challenge that the team faced is finding metallic compounds that do not poison or otherwise harm a person’s body. To solve this issue, Taylor said the team is currently considering using metallic elements for the microchip’s interface that do not oxidize over time, such as gold, platinum and palladium.
Eventually, Taylor hopes to use these same technology and apply it to creating devices that would help those people with neurologically degenerative diseases that attack neurons in the brain, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases.
“We are being quite ambitious and broad about our overall scope,” Taylor said. “Ultimately, if we can grow artificial neurons, there’s no reason why we can’t start to address those diseases as well. It sounds like science fiction, but actually it’s things that are happening already.”