Research

The Mass. Eye and Ear Neuro-Ophthalmology Service performs both clinical and “translational” research.  Of particular note, Dr. Rizzo is the founder of the Boston Retinal Implant Project, a consortium that is developing an "artificial retina" that some day may restore vision to patients with certain diseases of the retina.

Clinical Research. Most of our clinical research has focused on the diagnosis of conditions that cause blindness because of damage to either the retina or optic nerve, although we have maintained a broad interest in other disorders that involve the brain. Our research interests have particularly focused on improving the diagnostic accuracy of disorders of the optic nerve, especially optic neuritis and ischemic optic neuropathy. Our Service also has maintained long-term interests in the diagnosis and management of patients with giant cell arteritis and idiopathic intracranial hypertension, and in the study of visual disorders that affect the control of circadian rhythms.

Translational Research. Our translational research program is organized around the novel concept of “Therapeutic Neuro-Ophthalmology." Our translational program has two related types of activities:

• The development of new treatments to restore vision to patients who are blind from disease of the retina or optic nerve; or
• The conduct of studies to either improve the understanding or treatment of blinding diseases. These lines of research are motivated by the types of patients for whom we perform clinical evaluations.

The Boston Retinal Implant Project (BRIP) was founded by Dr. Rizzo in the late 1980s and since its inception has been a multidisciplinary collaboration between Mass. Eye and Ear and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 2001, the Veterans Administration has been an integral member of our consortium, which now includes 36 team members who are distributed at eight academic institutions and one local technology company.

Our team includes biologists (retinal surgeons, retinal physiologists, cortical physiologists), engineers (electrical engineers, microfabrication specialists, metallurgists, polymer chemists and other material scientists), and clinicians.

The BRIP has been dedicated to developing a retinal prosthesis to restore vision to patients who have either retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration. Our team has recently completed the development of a wireless, implantable retinal prosthesis that is being used to obtain “pre-clinical” information for the FDA. Our short-term goal is to upgrade our device for human use, and hopefully to perform FDA-approved clinical trials with our device in the near future.

To learn more, please visit the Boston Retinal Implant Project website.