A patient with Stargardt disease has begun rehabilitation with Science Corporation’s PRIMA retinal implant. The company says the patient saw a letter during the first session and read a word during the second. The early results offer a glimpse of how an implant designed to restore central vision might be adapted for an inherited disease that is currently considered incurable.
How the implant creates a view
Stargardt disease gradually damages the outer retina, where light-sensing cells are located. The inner retina may remain intact, but the disease creates a central blind spot that grows over time. The source article estimates that approximately 150,000 people worldwide have lost vision due to the disease.
PRIMA is placed at the back of the eye, in the area where photoreceptors have degenerated. Patients also wear glasses equipped with a camera. The camera captures a view of the world and transmits it to the chip, which acts like artificial photoreceptors and provides signals to the visual system.
According to CEO Max Hodak, the implant used by this patient measures two millimeters by two millimeters. The procedure takes about an hour. The device currently provides a small patch of central vision, rather than a broad field of view or color vision.
Early progress comes with clear limits
The first rehabilitation sessions produced small but concrete milestones: recognizing a letter, then reading a word. Hodak described the current image as black and white, sharp and high contrast. A patient can see a couple of letters at a time, he said.
That narrow view reflects the current implant’s size and design. Expanding it means making a larger chip that can fit the eye’s curvature. The company also wants smaller electrodes, which Hodak said could bring the level of detail closer to natural vision.
Hodak said a next-generation device is being developed and is expected to be in humans in the next year. He also said the company believes it could get pretty close to native acuity over the next five years. These are company expectations, not outcomes established by the patient’s initial rehabilitation sessions.
From one eye condition to a broader idea
PRIMA is commercially available in Europe for people who have lost sight because of geographic atrophy, an advanced form of age-related macular degeneration. Science Corporation is now exploring whether the same general approach can help people with Stargardt disease as part of an ongoing trial at Sydney Eye Hospital in Australia.
Hodak presented retinal prostheses as one part of a wider brain-computer interface field. He argued that cochlear implants, retinal prostheses and motor prostheses all interact with the nervous system through electrical signals. In that framing, a retinal implant is not just a vision device: it is one example of technology that can deliver information to the brain.
That broader ambition gives the current work a practical role. Science Corporation was founded in 2021 after Hodak left Neuralink, with plans for neural engineering and BCI technology. The company says it wants to demonstrate that its methods work and build a sustainable business, beginning with efforts to restore vision for people with sight loss.
Other applications remain in development
The company has also described a separate BCI sensor that would sit inside the skull, on top of the brain, rather than being inserted directly into brain tissue. It has said such technology could help monitor neurological activity, including in patients with brain tumors.
Hodak said Science Corporation is considering stroke and a neurodegenerative disease it has not publicly named as potential clinical directions. He described a longer-term goal of understanding how the brain creates the mind and building engineered brains. Those plans are far beyond what the retinal implant’s early reading milestones demonstrate.
For now, the Stargardt trial is focused on what this small implant can help a patient perceive. The first letter and word mark an initial step, while the limited central view, monochrome image and need for further device development show how much work remains.