Flexible photoacoustic retina prothesis

Retinal degenerative diseases are the leading cause of vision loss and have no cure. New designs are needed for flexible and high precision retina prothesis to restore vision meaningful acuity and view field. We demonstrated a flexible photoacoustic film as a retina implant and its application in retinal stimulation. MEA recording of retinae from LE and P23H rats confirmed that photoacoustic film stimulates spike activities through activiating BP cells. Activation of the subretinal implanted film elicited responses in the superior colliculus in rats under safety threshold. Our works show the potential of using optoacoustic to drive activity in photoreceptor-damaged retinas.