Degenerative diseases of the retina hit light-sensitive photoreceptors and leave inner retinal neurons deprived of light-dependent synaptic input.

This project targets to stimulate neurons with a drastically novel method that can go beyond single cell resolution to recreate lost synaptic connections with "hybrid nanosynapses": surviving retinal neurons will be interfaced with plasmonic nanochannels filled with smart polymers able to release neurotrasmitter in response to optical stimuli.

The synergic combination of the proposed technologies paves the way for the breakthrough development of retinal prosthetics able to rescue the natural cell-specific connectivity of the inner retinal neurons.