Study challenges conventional wisdom that sight-based brain sensory network is impaired with blindness

Is visual input essential to how the topographical map of the visual cortex develops in the human brain? In a new research, scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and those from in Germany and USA, show that the way in which the brain organizes its visual sense remains intact even in people who are blind from birth.

Is a whole eye transplant possible?

When we talk about an eye transplant, we usually refer to a cornea transplant, in the present day scenario. No one so far has been able to remove a complete eye from a donor, and transplant it into a recipient and make the eye function. But it looks like this is about to change...

Japanese woman is first recipient of next-generation iPS stem cells for macular degeneration

A Japanese woman in her 70s has become the first person in the world to receive retinal cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS). In a two-hour procedure on September 12, 2014, a team of three eye specialists lead by Dr Yasuo Kurimoto of the Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital, Japan, implanted a 1.3 by 3.0 millimetre sheet made of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells into one eye of this patient, who was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

Contact lens allows the blind to 'see'

Engineers in Israel are developing a contact lens they say will allow the blind to recognize
objects by feel rather than sight. The lens is being designed to translate electrical signals into 
shapes on the cornea, producing a tactile effect similar to Braille on the fingertips.





Source

News Bulletin

• Monthly injections may not be necessary for patients with age-related macular degeneration. http://goo.gl/uldMFv

• Converting stem cells to eye tissue could restore sight. http://goo.gl/pJeuiv

• Post-operative healing aided by new gel-based eye fluid. http://goo.gl/YA1B04

• Reversible glue bandage could save injured soldiers' vision. http://goo.gl/fwD2e0