Investor Updates
A$10 million for Australian bionic eye research
11 July 2013
The Australian government is providing an extra $A10 million to fund Australian researchers working to develop a bionic eye.
Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr said in an announcement that the research could lead to one of the world’s most important medical breakthroughs.
‘The funding will help these world-class researchers come a step closer to giving, and restoring, sight to many thousands of people around the world’, Senator Carr said.
Teams with Bionic Vision Australia (BVA), led by the University of Melbourne, and the Monash Vision Group (MVG), led by Monash University, are working on different but complementary methods of providing bionic vision.
The Australian Research Council will provide an additional $8 million for BVA, which has already performed the first human implantation of an early prototype bionic eye.
In 2014, BVA will further develop its devices for providing wide-view and high-acuity vision, with engineers and surgeons working through the design and testing process. This work is in preparation for the next set of patient tests with next generation devices.
MVG recently unveiled the prototype Gennaris wireless device, a direct-to-brain bionic eye which will assist patients with a damaged optic nerve. Funding of $1.9 million to MVG will allow further development and refinement of the device ahead of patient trials next year.
Both groups will seek further financial support from other sources beyond 2014.
The Australian Research Council has funded the projects through its Special Research Initiative in Bionic Vision Science and Technology. The funding extends grants of $50 million made since 2010.
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