About the project
The utilisation of naturally occurring protein nanomachines will be used as the basis for a technology that may restore vision and thereby benefit millions of people worldwide that are suffering from retinal degenerative diseases.
Photosense will seek to develop a novel artificial retina, built around the photosensitive protein, bacteriorhodopsin, which represents the utmost example of a «bottom-up» approach and the ideal design of modern nanotechnology.
The development of a high-resolution integrated microsensor array that combines optical, electrical and electrochemical pixels will constitute a key element of the project work. It will serve as a characterization platform for the artificial retina prototypes.
Collaboration
The Photosense Project is coordinated by The University of South-Eastern Norway (USN), in collaboration with research groups at The University of Oslo (UiO), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and the start-up Lambdavision in Connecticut in the USA.
Financing
The Research Council of Norway (NFR) has issued an award of 12 mill NOK to fund the project from 1st October 2021 to 31st March 2025 through their research programme for «Nanotechnology and advanced materials (NANO2021)».