Research on Retinal Ultrasound Stimulation to Aid Vision Impairment Honored by BMEF

January 24, 2023

The work uses focused ultrasound stimulation of the retina to treat vision loss.

Groundbreaking USC Viterbi research into how ultrasound technology can treat blindness has been awarded Paper of the Year for 2022 by BME Frontiers, a Science Partner Journal.

The research, Noninvasive Ultrasound Retinal Stimulation for Vision Restoration at High Spatiotemporal Resolution was published in the journal’s February 2022 edition. The lead authors are Ph.D. student in the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering, Gengxi Lu and Postdoctoral Fellow Xuejun Qian.

The research group pioneering the work is led by USC Professor of Biomedical Engineering and ophthalmology Qifa Zhou, and Mark S. Humayun, also a professor of ophthalmology and biomedical engineering at USC, and one of the inventors of Argus II — the world’s first artificial retina.

The work harnesses non-invasive and non-surgical ultrasound technology in the form of a wearable ultrasound device to generate ultrasound waves to stimulate the retina.

The research was funded by a four-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Eye Institute (NEI). Find out more about the research via USC Viterbi News.

Published on January 24th, 2023

Last updated on January 24th, 2023


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