Algae May Help Reverse Blindness

Anonymous coward writes ""Could a protein from algae help reverse blindness? Blind mice were able to respond to light after researchers inserted a green algae protein into retinal nerve cell membranes that normally aren't sensitive to light, according to a U.S. study," as reported by Forbes. There are more details at the Neurodudes blog, which includes a description of the novel method, which can convert any cell - nerve, muscle, etc. - into a light-sensing cell."

Comments

Screw blindness

[PhrostyMcByte]

When can I get eyes in the back of my head?

Re:Screw blindness

[cre_slash]

That is not cool enough, until you can have them at the end of tentacles mounted on your back. Thats definitively it. I think we should work for that....

Implants

[KiloByte]

Well, but how does this compare to the nice infrared/ultraviolet/X-ray vision thingies?

Ah, the choice...

Re:Implants

[vadim_t]

The algae would probably be MUCH better.

I saw a TV program about these implants some time ago. For that particular patent, vision was in a 16x16 matrix (IIRC), black/white only, and not all the pixels worked.

The effective vision obtained from that wasn't much. Got the ability to notice sources of light, and when standing on the street the ability to determine whether there's a building in front. On the show the patient commented she hoped to be able to see her husband's outline and was disappointed she didn't see it.

Of course, it's an amazing development anyway, which will hopefully be developed further into something actually usable, but at least the one I saw wasn't good for that much.

Further research

[ian_mackereth]

While they had the visually challenged rodents available, one of the female researchers has conducted further experiments involving removal of their tails to see what effect this has on their running speed.

Link

[The Step Child]

Here's a link to the paper from Neuron.

What about interpretation?

[Dr. Eggman]

Pardon my poor neuro-knowledge, but if you made a cell or a membrane lightsensitive that normally isn't, how would the brain interpret this signal? I don't think that you'd suddenly be able to see out of that area (loosly defining seeing as sensing light, kind of like when you close your eyelids but still can tell lights are moving around outside it.) Wouldn't the brain misinterpret the signals as whatever it normally recieves from that area, just based on the connection history of the neurons? Maybe it would eventually reroute the infromation to the sight portion of the brain.

Reguardless, this could provide a number of interesting research opportunities to further our knowledge of the brain as well as visual systems.

Re:What about interpretation?

[bcmm]

That's the odd thing about the human brain. It's normally very good at working out how to interpret incoming data, given enough time to get used to it. There's even been some success in using a grid of electrodes on the abdomen to simulate vision in blind people, using a camera to work out how much power to give each one.

Re:What about interpretation?

[Maset]

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) normally take input from a range of photoreceptors and pass this down the chain to the visual cortex. I imagine this replacement therapy would result in a much more grainy image, but one that the brain can adapt to.

Ugly vision

[Marce1]

Getting eyesight in extra body areas could become like getting tattoes today - some people might get covered, some stay 'clean'. I expect there would be common areas to get done, and some a bit more saucy..

Hind-sight could become a type of vision best avoided.