A cure for blindness could be the first product made in space

Artificial retinas made in space appear to be better than retinas made on Earth – suggesting that a cure for one of the leading causes of blindness could be one of the first products made on tomorrow’s commercial space stations.

Vision 101: After light enters the eye, it travels to the retina — a thin layer at the back of the organ — where light-sensitive cells called photoreceptors convert it into electrical signals. The signals are then sent to the brain for interpretation.

Many eye diseases damage the photoreceptors, resulting in impaired vision or even blindness. They affect millions of people and there are no known treatments for the most common ones: retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration.

Even a small force like gravity during manufacturing can cause imperfections.

artificial retina: Connecticut startup LambdaVision uses a light-activated protein called “bacteriorhodopsin” to build artificial retinas. The hope is that the devices will one day restore the sight of people with retinal degeneration by replenishing their damaged photoreceptors.

“Activated by light entering the eye, the artificial retina pumps protons towards the bipolar and ganglion cells,” explains Nicole Wagner, CEO of LambdaVision. “Receptors on these cells recognize the protons, causing them to send signals to the optic nerve, from where they travel to the brain.”

Room layout: Each of the artificial retinas contains 200 layers of the protein on a reticulated membrane. The more uniform these layers are, the better the implant should perform, but even a force as small as gravity during manufacture can introduce imperfections.

In search of flawless protein layers, LambdaVision decided to explore the feasibility of manufacturing its artificial retinas in space, hoping that the microgravity environment on satellites would result in a better product.

The company has partnered with Space Tango, a space-based research firm, to design an experiment using one of its CubeLabs, bootbox-sized containers equipped with all the automated systems needed to conduct experiments with inputs from Earth near are required in real time.

Supported by a $5 million commercialization grant from NASA, it sent its first CubeLab to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2018, and four others followed.

“[We’re looking at] how do you make it as reproducible and as high quality as possible,” says Wagner.

The fifth CubeLab has now returned to Earth, and according to LambdaVision’s initial analysis, the 200-layer films in it were more consistent than the controls they made on Earth.

This fifth experiment was also the most autonomous to date – while LambdaVision researchers often had to intervene in early CubeLabs, in this experiment this technology produced the films almost entirely on its own.

Looking ahead: Each microgravity experiment has helped LambdaVision achieve its goal of meeting FDA manufacturing standards for its artificial retinas by the end of 2023, and three more CubeLabs are already planned to arrive on the ISS next year.

“We have made great progress, but there is still a lot to do,” said Wagner. “We continue to investigate the parameters and further develop these assays. But making the 200 layer film in microgravity is a big milestone.”

LambaVision hopes to have its artificial retinas ready for trials in patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa in 2024. If these go well, studies on treating age-related macular degeneration would follow.

Ultimately, it plans to work with commercial partners to manufacture the implants in space.

“It’s very promising to continue this work in a microgravity environment,” Wagner told the Financial Times. “But the ISS is a research laboratory. Commercial space stations will have more options. They are designed to be future-oriented.”

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