Quantum dots to amplify vision
The number of people with damaged vision is getting bigger every day. That can be due to various reasons — looking at computer/TV displays, diabetes, and many more. That’s why technology is obliged to find a solution that will be able to repair vision and “renew” people’s eyes.
One of the most popular solutions so far were bionic eyes. A silicon chip gets implanted into the eye to electrically stimulate the retina’s nerves in response to light. Their main flaw of these devices is their size — because of it they block light that would have fallen on healthy parts of the retina and they can also cause tissue damage, such as tearing.
Jeffrey Olsen, a doctor from University of Colorado Hospital, has invented a brand new technique — amplifying the light that reaches the retina using the eye’s still functioning light-sensitive cells.
That’s where quantum dots step in. “Light amplification could be achieved by implanting quantum dots – nanoscale specks of semiconductor – into the retina,” he says. These fluoresce when hit by photons and would have the effect of making any received retinal image brighter.
Quantum dots have some very important characteristics — they require no external power source, their are relatively small in size, and can be coated with a bioactive material that causes them to become lodged in only specific tissues in the retina.
Tests were done on rats and they have been successful. Rats that had quantum dots injected into their retinas afterwards had more electrical activity in their retinas than those that received control injections of saline, or no treatment at all.
Patent: wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=2008106605 ; Photo: WIPO
