Science Corporation announced that it has implanted its PRIMA vision-restoring retinal chip into the company’s first patient with Stargardt disease. CEO Max Hodak — formerly president and co-founder of Neuralink — described the procedure and how the retinal program fits into Science Corporation’s broader brain–computer interface (BCI) strategy at TechCrunch Disrupt.
When and where the implant was performed
According to the company, the first Stargardt implantation took place in May as part of an ongoing trial at Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia. During the patient’s first rehabilitation session he perceived a letter, and during the second session he was able to read a word.
How PRIMA works and its current capabilities
PRIMA is a small 2×2 millimeter implant placed at the back of the eye where photoreceptors have degenerated. The surgical procedure lasts about an hour. Patients wear glasses equipped with a camera that transmit the visual scene to the chip, which acts as an array of artificial photoreceptors and converts images into electrical signals.
Hodak explained that the current implant provides a narrow, ‘‘through-a-straw’’ field of view: the image is black-and-white but high-contrast and sharp, allowing the patient to perceive a few letters at a time. The next development goals are to increase the field of view — which requires larger implants adapted to the curvature of the eye and smaller electrodes to approach native levels of detail.
Clinical and market context
PRIMA is already commercially available in Europe for patients who lost sight due to geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. Science Corporation says the approach could be applied to multiple conditions, including Stargardt disease, which is currently considered incurable. The article notes that roughly 150,000 people worldwide have lost vision because of Stargardt disease.
Retina as part of the CNS and the link to BCI
At the conference Hodak emphasized that ‘‘the retina is part of the central nervous system,’’ and framed retinal prostheses alongside cochlear implants and motor prostheses as types of BCIs. He argued the retinal program serves both as a clinical application and as a demonstrator for techniques the company intends to deploy more broadly in neural engineering.
Future steps: larger implants and skull-mounted BCI work
Hodak said there is a clear development path: a next-generation implant is under work and is expected to be tested in humans within the next year, and the company aims to approach near-native acuity within about five years.
Separately, Science Corporation is developing a BCI sensor designed to be implanted inside the skull and sit on top of the brain — unlike Neuralink’s approach of penetrating brain tissue. The company has suggested that such a device might be useful for monitoring neurological activity in conditions such as brain tumors and other neurological disorders.
Near-term and long-term clinical aims
Hodak indicated the company’s near-term first clinical indication — not yet publicly announced — will be a well-known neurodegenerative disease. They are also exploring stroke applications: if stroke has destroyed parts of the brain, the company envisions creating new cortical connections between deep brain areas, effectively adding new functional regions in ways it says conventional electrodes cannot.
Hodak framed a long-term mission of understanding how the brain creates the mind and ultimately building engineered brain functions. He also suggested that many people will eventually use some form of BCI, not as a commodity for healthy 40-year-olds but as a technology that could be commonly needed by the ages of 60 or 70 to extend health span as well as lifespan.
Summary
The PRIMA implantation in a Stargardt patient marks a clinical milestone for Science Corporation: early rehabilitation responses show proof of concept, while the device’s current resolution and field of view remain limited. The company plans iterative device improvements and is simultaneously advancing a skull-mounted BCI platform toward clinical indications in neurology.
