Science Corporation implants PRIMA vision chip in its first Stargardt disease patient

Science Corporation CEO Max Hodak announced on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt that the company has implanted its vision-restoring chip, PRIMA, into its first patient with Stargardt disease, an inherited eye disease that gradually destroys central vision. Hodak is the former president and co-founder of Neuralink and founded Science Corporation in 2021. According to the company, the patient received the implant in May as part of its ongoing trial at the Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia. During his first rehabilitation session he saw a letter, and during the second he was able to read a word.

PRIMA is already commercially available in Europe for patients who have lost their sight to geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. The company believes the same approach can be applied to several diseases, including Stargardt disease, which is currently considered incurable. Stargardt disease affects the outer retina, causing the gradual death of the eye's light-sensing cells while potentially sparing the inner retina, the part that passes visual signals to the brain. It produces a central blind spot that grows over time, and approximately 150,000 people worldwide have lost vision to it.

The procedure takes about an hour and places a small chip at the back of the eye, where the photoreceptors have degenerated. Patients then wear camera-equipped glasses that transmit a view of the world to the chip, and the implant essentially works like artificial photoreceptors. Hodak described the implant in this patient as two millimeters by two millimeters, so "it's like looking through a straw". He said it does not give a big field of view or color: it is a patch of central vision that is black and white but sharp and high-contrast, and patients can see a couple of letters at a time.

The next step, Hodak said, is a bigger field of view. That means dealing with the curvature of the eye and making the electrodes smaller to get closer to native levels of detail. He said a "next next generation" implant is being worked on and will be in humans in the next year, and that over the next five years he thinks the company can get pretty close to native acuity. He framed this as an expectation, not a result.

Hodak also placed PRIMA within the company's wider brain-computer interface (BCI) ambitions. He argued that the retina is part of the central nervous system, so cochlear implants, retinal prostheses and motor prostheses are all types of BCI, and that vision is, to the brain, electrical activity down the optic nerve. Science Corporation wants to prove its methods work and build a sustainable business first, which is why it is restoring vision for the visually impaired. Its BCI sensor, it has previously said, will sit inside the skull on top of the brain, unlike a Neuralink device, which is inserted directly into brain tissue. The company has said the device could help with neurological conditions, such as possibly monitoring neurological activity in patients with brain tumors.

On the near term, Hodak said the first clinical indication for the BCI has not been announced publicly and is a neurodegenerative disease "that everybody's heard of"; the company is also looking at stroke. The long-term mission, he said, is to understand how the brain creates the mind and to learn to build engineered brains. He added that the company believes many people will eventually need some kind of BCI by the age of 60 or 70. It is not designing for healthy 40-year-olds, and the aim is to extend not just lifespan but health span.

Key facts

Science Corporation says its first Stargardt disease patient received the PRIMA retinal implant in May, in an ongoing trial at the Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia.
In the first rehabilitation session the patient saw a letter; in the second he read a word.
The implant is two millimeters by two millimeters and gives a black-and-white, high-contrast patch of central vision, which Hodak compared to looking through a straw.
PRIMA is already commercially available in Europe for geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration.
Hodak says a next-generation implant should be in humans within a year and that close to native acuity is possible within five years; he presented both as his own expectation.

Why it matters

Stargardt disease is currently considered incurable and affects approximately 150,000 people worldwide who have lost vision to it. This is the first time the company reports PRIMA in a patient with the condition, extending a device sold in Europe for geographic atrophy to a second disease. It also supports Science Corporation's argument that retinal prostheses belong in the same family as other brain-computer interfaces.

Who it affects

People with Stargardt disease, an inherited condition that gradually destroys central vision, are the direct audience. Patients with geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration, can already get PRIMA commercially in Europe. Beyond vision, the company says its BCI work is aimed first at a neurodegenerative disease it has not named, and also at stroke.

How to use it

PRIMA is not available to Stargardt patients outside a trial; the one reported case is part of the ongoing trial at the Sydney Eye Hospital. The procedure takes about an hour and places a small chip at the back of the eye, after which the patient wears camera-equipped glasses that send a view of the world to the chip. In Europe, the device is commercially available for patients who lost their sight to geographic atrophy.

How solid is it

This is a company announcement made on stage by its CEO at TechCrunch Disrupt, resting on one patient. The reported results are that the patient saw a letter in the first rehabilitation session and read a word in the second. The source gives no figure for visual acuity and no patient details beyond that. The year of the May implant is not stated, and the source gives no regulatory approval or trial size for PRIMA in Stargardt disease. Hodak's timelines, a next-generation implant in humans within a year and close to native acuity within five years, are his own opinion, not a commitment or a result.

Risks and caveats

The restored vision is narrow: a two millimeter by two millimeter implant gives a small black-and-white patch, and patients can see a couple of letters at a time. Larger fields of view need a bigger implant that copes with the curvature of the eye, plus smaller electrodes. The company's broader BCI plans, including the unnamed neurodegenerative indication and stroke, are stated intentions without trial results in the source.

“We consider cochlear implants, retinal prostheses, motor prostheses, these are all different types of BCIs.”

— Max Hodak, Science Corporation CEO, at TechCrunch Disrupt