Bioelectronics Research Lab (Final Report)

Abstract

The Doheny Eye Institute at the University of Southern California (DEI) served as the lead institution in the DOE Artificial Retina Project. In this role, DEI coordinated the efforts of six national labs, four universities, and one company. The coordination role included arranging regular telecons, scheduling investigator meeting, collating and finalizing quarterly and annual reports, and maintaining progress towards project milestones. Despite being on time and accomplishing the milestones and receiving the highest marks by outside reviewers, the Artificial Retina Program was cut short by 2 years and the amount of funding was drastically reduced for the last 2 years that were funded. These budget cuts led to the inability of the team to complete any of the two products. The 200+ electrode device with the goal of providing vision compatible with mobility and orientation was built but not completed as there were no funds or time to complete the final packaging step for the implantable electronics. The 1,000 electrode device with the goal of providing reading vision was never started beyond conceptual designs.