“Our hybrid implant is composed of electrodes integrated with neuron cells, which we developed from stem cells: the electrodes will sense different light patterns and process them into the corresponding electric signal patterns, which the neuron cells transmit to the retina. Transplanting this nanometric device under the retina, we are able to take advantage of the low neuronal activation threshold in this area, and by using the eye’s optical system to process the data as it naturally does, we believe we can make it possible for blind patients to see much in the way non-blind people do.” Profs. Mandel and Zalevsky are partnering on yet another project—this one with the support of the Israel Ministry of Science and Technology. “We are trying to image the retina and brain activity using laser light beams, in the hope that in the future we’ll be able to remotely observe their real-time neuronal function.” Prof. Mandel pointed out that the imaging method is based on sophisticated image processing of “speckles” arising from the laser light beam, which enables the detection of nanometric movements of the neurons during their activity. Our technique should be able to give us access to targeted information, which will make it possible to detect the source of numerous health conditions and then use that information to develop and customize treatments for them,” says Prof. Mandel. He further explains that “clinical means today already provide us good anatomical imaging of the retina, which lets us see the retinal layers and determine whether they are normal or damaged. But we can’t see which area in a damaged layer is working and which isn’t.” To establish the proof of concept, Profs. Mandel and Zalevsky successfully tested their functional imaging technique on a few neuron cells; next they plan to image a retina in vitro and then move on to trials in living animals. The Medicine of the Future Among other developments, Prof. Mandel’s nanoparticle-based system for drug delivery to the eye and real-time drug-release monitoring has drawn the attention of industry. Prof. Mandel and Israel Prize recipient Prof. (emeritus) Itamar Willner of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem pooled their expertise in biology and medicine, chemistry, nanotechnology and biotechnology to develop a nanoparticle that binds to the drug, delivers it to the eye and releases it there. The drug is aimed to prevent the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the eye—a typical condition in AMD, and the study, which won the KAMIN grant from the Israel Innovation Authority and other funding, was published in Small (2020). “We are searching for and developing ways for the nanoparticle to deliver other therapeutic molecules,” says Prof. Mandel, who hopes that worldwide enthusiasm for bioconvergence will favor investment in infrastructures, collaboration and resources, all needed to continue the boundary-pushing research of advanced therapies. Prof. Yossi Mandel, the head of the Ophthalmic Science and Engineering Lab at BIU’s School of Optometry and Vision Science at the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, completed his PhD in bioengineering at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, California. An ophthalmologist, eye surgeon and expert in bioengineering and neuroscience, he won the 2021 European Research Council (ERC) grant for his innovative scientific work. 40
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