The candidate proposes a five year mentored clinical scientist research and training plan focused on the application of nanotechnology to the treatment of retinal disease. Dr. Foster is an Ophthalmologist with clinical training in Vitreoretinal surgery as well as a PhD in Physics. His long-term career goal is to combine his clinical interest in retinal diseases with his research interest in bionanotechnology, developing a funded research program investigating the interaction of novel materials with the retina. The research and clinical environment that has been established to achieve this goal is ideally suited to develop the candidate into an independently funded physician-scientist. The candidate proposes a series of experiments related to the goal of developing a photoreceptor prosthesis for patients with retinal degenerations such as retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration. There has been a great deal of interest recently in the development of retinal prostheses. Although considerable effort has gone into the development of these devices, the focus has been primarily on engineering considerations, rather than upon obtaining a basic understanding of how these systems interact with neurons. Most of the existing systems rely upon silicon-based detectors and the injection of current into neurons, with resulting ohmic heating and damage. The proposed device relies upon novel materials to achieve capacitive and electric field coupling to retinal neurons. The candidate's hypothesis is that using this technology to develop the proposed prosthesis will overcome the significant limitation of thermal damage, and lead to an improved system. The eventual goal of this research is to test this novel device as a functional retinal prosthesis.
The specific aims of this research proposal are: (1) To develop photoferroelectric devices capable of activating specific neurons. (2) To determine an optimal configuration and size for an array of such devices. (3) To conduct in-vitro evaluation of the resulting devices.
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