BIONIC EYE TRIAL RESULTS SHOW SUBSTANTIAL VISION IMPROVEMENTS OVER TWO AND A HALF YEARS  Blind participants with retinitis pigmentosa able to locate doorways, avoid obstacles

SEGMENT
Filmed in Melbourne and Sydney | February 2025

Released on Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness Month

INTERVIEWED
Professor James Fallon,
Chief Technology Officer Bionics Institute &
Head of the Medical Bionics Department, University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Penelope Allen,
Head of Bionic Eye Project & Principal Investigator,
Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) &
Vitreoretinal Surgeon,
Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital

Dr Ash Attia
Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director
Bionic Vision Technologies

Results of the first clinical trial of Australia’s ‘second generation’ bionic eye have demonstrated ‘substantial improvement’ in four participants’ functional vision, daily activities and quality of life over a period of more than two and a half years.

Detailed outcomes from the trial, led by the Centre for Eye Research Australia, Bionics Institute, University of Melbourne and Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, were published in Ophthalmology Science.

The findings add to interim results which showed that the second-generation bionic eye developed by Australian company Bionic Vision Technologies provided rapid improvements for four patients with blindness caused the genetic eye condition retinitis pigmentosa.

Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited retinal disease which affects about two million people worldwide and is one of the leading causes of vision loss in working-age people.

The bionic eye comprises an electrode array, designed by the Bionics Institute and the Centre for Eye Research Australia, that is surgically implanted behind the eye. The electrode receives signals from a video camera mounted on glasses, which stimulate the patient’s retina.

Credit: Retinitis pigmentosa fact sheet from Retina Australia