Nanobiomaterials for bionic eye: Vision of the future

With the aid of nanotechnology and understanding of visual and retinal neuroscience, tremendous advances have been achieved in the treatment of people who have lost their vision. Among vision restoration techniques, stem cells or gene therapy remain in their early phases of development, while visual prosthesis (bionic eye) attains some approaches in vision restoration. There are several ongoing projects around the world on visual prosthesis, including Argus II (received FDA approval), Boston Retinal Implant Project, Epi-Ret 3, Intelligent Medical Implants and Alpha-IMS (Retina Implant AG). One of the most crucial traits of implants is vision resolution that theoretically correlates with electrode number. In this way, using nanobiomaterials have shown continual improvements in visual outcomes. Generally, any progress in the optoelectronic field would be used in visual prostheses, for instance developing photovoltaic systems for visual prostheses. In fact, the world of nanoscience has impressed optoelectronic science and vision restoration. Among them colloidal quantum dots, metal nanoparticles, nanocrystals, nanowires, etc., which are pioneers in the optoelectronic field have shown their potential to change visual prostheses. This chapter will cover the current role of nanobiomaterials in visual prosthesis progress and touch on the future possibilities of this technology.