THE EX-NEURALINK CHIEF JUST DID IT TOO — HIS FIRST PATIENT READ A WORD

Science Corporation has implanted its PRIMA vision-restoring chip in its first patient with Stargardt disease, an inherited condition that gradually destroys central vision and currently has no cure or approved treatment to reverse it. CEO Max Hodak, a co-founder and former president of Neuralink, announced the case onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt.

The 2mm by 2mm chip was placed under the retina at Sydney Eye Hospital in May as part of the PRIMAlia trial. The patient saw a letter in his first rehabilitation session and read a word in his second. PRIMA acts as artificial photoreceptors: camera glasses send the scene as infrared light to the implant, which converts it to electrical signals passed on by surviving retinal cells. The view is narrow, black-and-white and high-contrast. PRIMA is already commercially available in Europe for geographic atrophy.