• Posted October 21, 2025

Breakthrough Retinal Implant Helps Restore Partial Vision in Patients

Scientists have restored partial vision to people with a common form of blindness using a prosthetic retinal implant, a first that could one day improve life for more than a million Americans with severe vision loss.

The new technology — developed by Califonia-based Science Corporation — helped 27 of 32 patients regain enough sight to read black-and-white letters on an eye chart, according to a study published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“This is at the forefront of science,” Dr. Demetrios Vavvas, director of the retina service at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, told The New York Times.

Vavvas, who reviewed the findings, said the implant is not a cure, but it’s the dawn of a new technology that will continue to advance.

The implant was tested in older adults with geographic atrophy, a type of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) that destroys cells in the center of the retina. 

These cells are essential for sharp, central vision needed to read, recognize faces and navigate daily life.

Participants, who had an average age of 79, were previously told their vision loss was permanent. After surgery, their ability to see improved by an average of five lines on a standard eye chart, researchers said.

The implant works with a small camera and glasses that project infrared images onto a tiny wireless chip — about the size of a pinhead — inserted into the retina. The chip converts light into electrical signals, which stimulate remaining retinal neurons, creating a black-and-white image.

Although the restored vision is blurry and low-resolution, the ability to read or detect shapes again was “life-changing” for many participants, researchers said.

The only current treatments for geographic atrophy — pegcetacoplan and avacincaptad — only slow vision loss, not reverse it, and both require injections into the eye every one to two months.

With those drugs, “basically you get worse slower,” Dr. Royce Chen, a Columbia University expert on macular degeneration, told The Times. He was not involved in the study.

The idea that patients could get some vision back “is amazing,” Chen added.

Dr. Ronald Adelman, chairman of ophthalmology at the Mayo Clinic in Florida who also reviewed the findings, agreed. He called the results “amazing” and adding that the research “brings hope."

Side effects occurred in 19 of the 32 patients, including increased eye pressure, small retinal tears or bleeding. But most were “manageable and resolved within two months,” researchers reported.

The trial took place in Europe, where the device was developed by Pixium Vision, a French company later acquired by California-based Science Corporation. 

The company has since applied to sell the device in Europe and is in discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about bringing it to the United States.

Daniel Palanker, the Stanford University physicist who invented the device, said he began working on the concept more than 20 years ago. His team is already testing a newer implant that offers better resolution. It has shown promise in early testing.

More information

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more on age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

SOURCE: The New York Times, Oct. 20, 2025