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Bionic Vision Australia
Annual Report 2011
Goal and aims ................................................................................................... 2
Chairman’s Report ............................................................................................. 3
Director’s Report ................................................................................................ 6
Governance ..................................................................................................... 10
Highlights 2011................................................................................................ 14
Education ........................................................................................................ 15
Research Report ............................................................................................. 19
Visitors, events and communication ................................................................ 24
Commercialisation ........................................................................................... 27
Financial Report .............................................................................................. 29
Staff and Students ........................................................................................... 30
Publications Listing.......................................................................................... 43
Inside the bionic eye ........................................................................................ 61
Our global goal
To rapidly develop internationally competitive retinal implants and technologies
that are shown to be clinically safe and effective in restoring sight, leading to
successful commercialisation.
Our aims

Improve the quality of life for people with degenerative vision conditions by
bringing together Australia’s top scientists, engineers and clinicians to
develop a bionic eye and carry out the first prototype human implant by
2013,

Train the next generation of medical bionics experts, and

Advance and commercialise bionic vision technology, further enhancing
Australia’s position as a leader in the field of medical bionics.
Bionic Vision Australia is a national consortium of researchers from the Bionics
Institute (BI), the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA), NICTA, the
University of Melbourne (UoM) and the University of New South Wales (UNSW).
Supporting participants include the National Vision Research Institute (NVRI), the
University of Western Sydney (UWS) and the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear
Hospital (RVEEH).
Chairman’s Report
Professor Emeritus David Penington AC
Chairman, Bionic Vision Australia
Bionic Vision Australia (BVA) was established in 2010 as an unincorporated joint
venture comprising our major partner organisations, committed to sharing skills
and resources in this exciting endeavour. Our mission is to develop a functional
retinal prosthesis, or bionic eye, that can restore a sense of vision to people with
blindness due to inherited and degenerative retinal conditions.
The Global Goal of the project, against which we test all our endeavours and
progress is:
“To rapidly develop internationally competitive retinal implants and technologies
that are shown to be clinically safe and effective in restoring sight, leading to
successful commercialisation.”
Having established the joint venture in 2010, we completed the research team in
2011 with recruitment of a diverse group of people with expertise as varied as:
ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, electrical engineering, materials science,
neuroscience, vision science, psychophysics, wireless integrated-circuit design,
and surgical, preclinical and clinical practice. This is a most impressive team all
committed to achieving our global goal.
BVA Governing Board
As Chairman, I would like to extend my thanks to all members of the BVA
Governing Board for their commitment to our work and considerable expertise,
which was drawn upon during the year. We are most fortunate to have such a
talented and engaged Board.
Assisting the Governing Board are a Risk and Audit Committee, chaired by Mr
Peter Nankivell and a Scientific Advisory Board (SAB), chaired by Distinguished
Professor Brian Anderson. I would like to thank all members of both of these
groups for their valuable input and guidance to our work during 2011. A newly
appointed member of the SAB, Professor Mark Blumenkranz, added important
clinical expertise to the group and we welcomed his visit in October 2011.
The Governing Board and research leaders welcomed an important report from
the SAB following its visit to each of our groups in March 2011. The report was
perceptive and valuable in guiding a significant redirection of elements of our
project.
Supporting Participants
In July, one of our Chief Investigators, Professor Michael Ibbotson, was
appointed as Director of the National Vision Research Institute (NVRI) in the
Australian College of Optometry. This appointment resulted in Professor Ibbotson
and his team relocating to Melbourne and leaving the Australian National
University (ANU) in Canberra. Consequently, the ANU has resigned as a
supporting participant of the project and the NVRI has joined.
In preparation for our first set of patient tests, we have been working closely with
the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital (RVEEH) and I look forward to
welcoming the hospital formally as a supporting participant early in 2012.
Project Management
All technical advances must be rigorously assessed for safety and regulatory
compliance to ensure the best outcomes for patients. Our project is no different
and the evaluation and management of technical and scientific risk is becoming a
further field of priority. This has been an important focus of the Executive team
and the Risk and Audit Committee throughout the year. Efforts to mitigate these
risks will continue throughout 2012.
Management of intellectual property was enhanced during the year, with the
appointment of an IP Manager from Phillips Ormond Fitzpatrick. The patent
portfolio grew substantially, which is a testament to the talent and efforts of our
research team. The progress made in 2011 has set a strong foundation for
transfer into commercialisation activities in due course. I would like to extend my
thanks to the members of the IP Advisory Group, chaired by Professor Peter
Blamey of the Bionics Institute (BI), who have done a fine job in this area.
Discussions and liaison with the Monash Vision Group, also funded through the
Australian Research Council’s Special Research Initiative in Bionic Vision
Science and Technology, resulted in joint collaborative meetings and planning of
community outreach activities. I look forward to developing this collaboration
further in 2012.
Our Researchers
In 2011 we reviewed our scientific leadership to broaden its scope and include
clinical expertise. BVA’s Director, Professor Anthony Burkitt now heads a
scientific leadership group that includes Professor Nigel Lovell from the
University of New South Wales (UNSW) and Professor Robyn Guymer from the
Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA). This group is supported by Associate
Professor Gregg Suaning (UNSW), Professor Rob Shepherd (BI), Dr Hamish
Meffin (NICTA) and Dr Penny Allen (CERA), who make up the Research
Management Committee. They, along with other Chief and Partner Investigators
of the project, have made major progress in their technical and clinical research –
more detail is provided in the Research Report on page 14.
Looking Ahead
The provisional Board of Bionic Vision Technologies Pty Ltd, chaired by Dr Colin
Sutton, will liaise closely with our Executive team and IP Manager to monitor the
changes outlined above and to ensure that the objective of preparation for
development and commercialisation of retinal implants is kept at the forefront of
our research effort.
We have set some ambitious targets for 2012 and will continue to keep the
community informed about our progress. I look forward to witnessing many
exciting developments by our researchers and clinicians as they work towards
the first patient tests in 2013.
Prior to his appointment to Chairman of Bionic Vision Australia in 2009, Professor
Penington held the positions of Professor of Medicine, Dean and Vice Chancellor
at the University of Melbourne.
Professor Penington Chaired Bio21 Australia Ltd from 2002 to 2009 as well as
Neurosciences Victoria from 2002 to 2005. Previously, Professor Penington was
chair of Cerylid Ltd, Cochlear Ltd and the CRC for Cellular Growth Factors. Prior
to this he was Director of Pacific Dunlop Ltd. He has been a member of Foursight
Associates Pty Ltd since 1996.
Director’s Report
Professor Anthony N. Burkitt
Director, Bionic Vision Australia
I am pleased to present the 2011 Annual Report for BVA. This was very much
the year of the microchip, with our electronics engineers making remarkable
progress in developing microchips for both our Wide-View and High-Acuity
implants.
2011 Milestones Achieved

This was a busy year for all involved, but I am pleased that we have
achieved all our planned milestones, including:

completing sub-component bio-stability testing of electrode array materials
for the Wide-View device;

completing design and testing of the implanted microchip for the WideView device;

completing development of the electrode array, chip scale hermetic
encapsulation and other implantable components for the Wide-View
device;

establishing the use of polycrystalline diamond as a stimulating interface
for electrodes; and

completing structure and function studies of the eye affected by retinitis
pigmentosa. This work will help our clinicians establish the selection
protocols for our first patients and beyond.
Scientific Advisory Board
In March, we welcomed our SAB into each of our laboratories. I am most grateful
to everyone involved in the project for their work ensuring this was a productive
visit. The SAB provided a number of positive comments about our progress and
the energy from our team, as well as a number of recommendations to help focus
the development. Specifically, this was to define one single global goal for the
project and enhance the role of the clinical team to ensure patient needs are
always at the forefront of our design efforts. I am grateful to Professor Robyn
Guymer and Professor Nigel Lovell for their support throughout the year and for
stepping into these enhanced leadership roles, as well as all the members of the
Research Management Committee. I also congratulate Dr Penny Allen and Dr
Hamish Meffin on their new roles as program leaders for the Surgical Program
and High-Acuity Program respectively.
International Environment
As with any field of endeavour, it’s impossible for any one group of researchers
to have all the answers. There are several groups across the world working on
delivering bionic vision devices and the progress being made internationally and
here in Australia is truly remarkable. It is an indication that this technology has
really reached a level of maturity that will enable it to produce functional benefits
in people’s lives very soon.
In response to this international environment, we have done all we can to
accelerate our work to reach our goal of delivering a safe and functional implant
as soon as possible. I am pleased with the progress our team has made in the
last year, meeting all our key milestones and integrating our activities across a
number of very different research areas.
What sets BVA and our technology apart is the group of people we have
assembled to work on this project and the range of expertise they provide. From
ophthalmology and biomedical engineering to materials and vision science, we
have selected Australia’s best researchers to achieve our mission of delivering a
bionic eye that is capable of restoring the sense of vision to people with profound
blindness.
In many ways, 2011 was also a year of celebrating Australia’s rich history in the
field of medical bionics. Thanks to the developments of the heart pacemaker and
the cochlear implant, we now have a strong community of experts in the field of
bionics and implantable medical devices, who have the experience and expertise
required to bring about the next generation of medical bionic technologies.
I congratulate Professor Rob Shepherd and his team at the newly named Bionics
Institute (formerly the Bionic Ear Institute) on embracing this new direction,
focusing on research in bionic hearing, vision and neurobionics. Similarly, the
University of Melbourne (UoM) has established a new Centre for Neural
Engineering, led by Professor Stan Skafidas, to address the challenges of these
new and exciting fields.
Further, the UNSW has invested 2.5 million dollars to renovate laboratories in the
Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, incorporating a clean room and
updating equipment. This is a huge boost to the fabrication capacities at UNSW
and to the whole team working on the bionic eye project.
Similarly, the RVEEH has provided new laboratory and patient consultation
space to CERA, dedicated to the team working on the bionic eye project.
BVA was a proud sponsor of the 2011 Graeme Clark Oration, recognising an
internationally acclaimed innovator and leader in the field of medical bionics,
Professor Graeme Clark, and celebrating his lifetime of achievement. Further, in
2012 BVA is also a sponsor of the ICT for Life Sciences Forum, hosted by
NICTA, a community of researchers and industry representatives dedicated to
furthering research and technology at the exciting and rapidly expanding
interface between engineering and biology.
Looking ahead
In 2012, our focus will be to finalise preparations for the first set of patient tests
with the Wide-View device in 2013 and to progress the development of our HighAcuity device. Our key objectives
will be to:

successfully develop electrical stimulation algorithms for both the WideView and High-Acuity implants;

finalise electrode array and implant designs for the Wide-View device;

finalise preclinical testing of the Wide-View device in preparation for
patient tests in 2013;

develop protocols for assessment of patient suitability and assessment of
functional vision in daily life;

successfully test external vision processing hardware and power and data
transmission hardware for communication with implanted components;

complete subcomponent bio-stability testing of diamond electrode array
materials for the High-Acuity device; and

continue development of a flexible system (including stimulator, safety
protocols, eye and head movement tracking) to be used for human
psychophysics testing and procedures.
Regulatory compliance is critical when taking a development from research to
clinical and commercial application. In 2011, we met with the US Food and Drug
Administration to ensure our work is on track. Further, we plan to meet with the
Therapeutic Goods Administration in 2012. We have some expertise in house
and we are engaging external consultants as needed to
work on this important aspect of the project.
I would like to thank, once again, all of our researchers, students and staff who
have worked tirelessly during 2011 to deliver outstanding results. I feel privileged
to lead such a remarkable group of people and look forward to delivering
functional benefits to the vision impaired members of our community.
Professor Anthony Burkitt holds the Chair in Bio-Signals and Bio-Systems in the
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of
Melbourne.
For over a decade, Professor Burkitt has worked in cochlear-implant speech
processing, computational auditory neuroscience and epilepsy. He is now
extending these techniques to the development of retinal implants.
From 2006 to 2008, Professor Burkitt was the Assistant Director of the Bionic Ear
Institute.
Governance
BVA is governed by a Board of Directors, which is responsible for the high-level
management and strategic direction of the consortium, including research
program oversight. The Board comprises three independent members and one
member representing each of the five joint venture partners. The Board is
supported by the Scientific Advisory Board, the Risk and Audit Committee and
the Research Management Committee.
Professor Emeritus David Penington AC – Chairman
Professor Hugh Taylor AC, MD, FRANZCO – Harold Mitchell Chair of Indigenous
Eye Health, Melbourne School of Population Health
Dr Colin Sutton – Director, New South Innovations Pty Ltd
Mr Peter Nankivell – Director, Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) and
Partner, Herbert Geer Lawyers
Professor Iven Mareels – Dean, Melbourne School of Engineering, University of
Melbourne
Associate Professor Laurent Rivory – Director, Research Strategy Office,
University of New South Wales
Professor Rob J. Evans – Research Group Leader, Control and Signal Processing
Victoria Research Laboratory, NICTA
Ms Christina Hardy – Non-Executive Director, Bionics Institute and Director of
Business Development and Legal Affairs, Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Alternate Directors who attended meetings of the Governing Board in 2011 are:
Dr Charlie Day (alternate for Professor Iven Mareels), Professor Margaret
Harding (alternate for Associate Professor Laurent Rivory) and Dr Jia-Yee Lee
(alternate for Professor Rob Evans).
Ms Julie Anne Quinn, General Manager for BVA is Secretary to the Board.
Scientific Advisory Board
The SAB was established in 2010 to advise the BVA Governing Board on
scientific strategy, international standing, research quality and proposed
commercialisation pathways.
In March 2011, we were pleased to welcome members of the SAB to Australia
for what will now be an annual visit to monitor the progress of our project. The
group met with researchers, students and staff from our Melbourne, Canberra
and Sydney labs, making many positive remarks about the collaborative nature
of our work.
Later in the year we welcomed Professor Mark Blumenkranz of Stanford
University to the SAB. Professor Blumenkranz brings important clinical expertise
to this group and visited Australia in October 2011 for initial meetings with senior
researchers.
The SAB provided a number of recommendations on research strategy and
governance to the BVA Governing Board, to which we have since responded.
We appreciate the time and effort this group of experts has dedicated to BVA and
look forward to hosting the group again in 2012.
Professor Nigel Lovell
Convener, SAB
Members of the Scientific Advisory Board
Professor Brian Anderson (Chair)
Research School of Information Sciences and Engineering, The Australian
National University
Professor Anderson is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering and Computer
Science at the Australian National University (ANU). He was the inaugural CEO
of NICTA and the Chief Scientist at the organisation from 2003-2006.
Professor Anderson has served as a member of a number of government bodies,
including the Australian Science and Technology Council and the Prime
Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council. He was previously a
member of the Board of Cochlear Limited.
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and of the Academy of
Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers, and an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia. He
was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1993.
Professor Dominique Durand
Department of Biomedical Engineering Neural Engineering Center, Case Western
Reserve University Cleveland Ohio, USA
Professor Durand is the E.L. Linsedth Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Neurosciences, Physiology and Biophysics and Director of the Neural
Engineering Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.
Professor Durand has obtained funding for his research from the National
Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and private foundations. He
is an IEEE Fellow; Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biomedical
Engineering and Fellow of the Institute of Physics.
Having published over 100 articles and consulted for many biotechnology
companies and foundations, Professor Durand also serves on five editorial
boards of peer-reviewed scientific journals. He is the editor-in-chief and founding
editor of the Journal of Neural Engineering.
Professor Nigel Lovell (Convenor)
Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales
Professor Nigel Lovell is a Scientia Professor at the UNSW Graduate School of
Biomedical Engineering, working in the areas of bionics, biomonitoring and
physiological modelling.
His principal research interests have been focused in the application of
appropriate technology in primary health care and design of a bionic eye. He has
published 450+ journal articles, books, chapters, patents, refereed proceedings
and abstracts. He is a board member of the journal ‘Physiological Measurement’,
a founding board member of the ‘Journal of Neural Engineering’ and an
Associate Editor of ‘Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine’.
He is currently Vice President for Conferences for the Institution of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society
(EMBS) which is the world’s largest member-based biomedical engineering
professional organisation.
Professor Dr Thomas Stieglitz
IMTEK – Institut für Mikrosystemtechnik, University of Freiburg, Germany
Professor Dr Stieglitz is a full professor for Biomedical Microtechnology in the
Institute for Microsystem Technology (IMTEK) at the University of Freiburg
(Germany).
In 2000 he received the science award of the Saarland State for his work on
flexible, neural prostheses. Professor Dr Stieglitz qualified as a university lecturer
in 2002 at the Saarland University in biomedical microsystem technology.
Professor Dr Stieglitz worked with the Fraunhofer-Institute for Biomedical
Engineering (IBMT) from 1993 to 2004, where he established the research work
on biomedical microsystems for neural prostheses, which finally led to the IBMT
Neural Prostheses Group.
Professor Dr Stieglitz is a member of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and
Biology Society (EMBS), the German Engineering Society (VDI) and the German
Society for Biomedical Engineering (DGBMT) within the German Electrotechnical
Society (VDE) where he is chair of the Functional Stimulation Section. He is also
the founding member of the International Society for Functional Electrical
Stimulation (IFESS).
Professor Mark Blumenkranz MD
Professor and Chairman, Stanford University School of Medicine –
Ophthalmology
Professor Mark Blumenkranz is a Professor of Ophthalmology and Chairman at
Stanford University School of Medicine. He is a practising clinician in the USA at
the Stanford Hospital and Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
Professor Blumenkranz has been on the Board of Directors for a variety of
voluntary education and service organisations, including the Corporation of
Brown University, multiple scientific advisory boards and various philanthropic
and research organisations.
Risk and Audit Committee
The Risk and Audit Committee is comprised of: Mr Peter Nankivell (Chair), Ms
Christina Hardy and Professor Rob Evans. The Risk and Audit Committee serves
as a subcommittee of the Governing Board for the general oversight of BVA
affairs in the areas of financial accounting and reporting, risk management and
the underlying internal control environment for the BVA.
Leadership Group
In 2011, a research leadership group was established to enhance the integration
across BVA’s research activities. Consequently, Professor Robyn Guymer, who
provides clinical expertise, and Professor Nigel Lovell, who interfaces activities in
Sydney and Canberra, now support the BVA Director in the leadership and
management of the project. The Leadership Group meets regularly to review
project progress.
Research Management Committee (RMC)
The RMC is comprised of the BVA research program leaders and is responsible
for driving the research strategy and activities for the project. Chaired by the BVA
Director, Professor Anthony Burkitt, the RMC meets monthly to ensure research
milestones and objectives are met. Members of the RMC are: Dr Penny Allen,
Professor Robyn Guymer, Professor Nigel Lovell, Dr Hamish Meffin, Professor
Rob Shepherd and Associate Professor Gregg Suaning.
Highlights 2011
Dr Socrates Dokos (Stimulation Strategy Program, UNSW) was promoted to the
level of Chief Investigator on the BVA project.
Professor Rob Evans and Professor Hugh Taylor (BVA Board Members) were each
awarded a Melbourne Laureate Professorship in recognition of their significant
contributions to electronic engineering and ophthalmology respectively.
Associate Professor Erica Fletcher (Preclinical Program, UoM) was promoted to the
level of Chief Investigator on the BVA project.
Professor Michael Ibbotson (Preclinical Program, NVRI) commenced his new role
as Director of the National Vision Research Institute, bringing his team of 11
researchers to Melbourne to establish a new laboratory.
Mr Sam John (Preclinical Program, BI) was awarded the Harold Mitchell
Postgraduate Student Travelling Fellowship to attend the Association for
Research in Vision and Ophthalmology conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Dr Torsten Lehmann (Stimulation Strategy Program, UNSW) was promoted to the
level of Chief Investigator on the BVA project.
Professor Nigel Lovell (Stimulation Strategy Program, UNSW) played a major role
at this year’s Engineering in Medicine and Biology Conference as Editor in Chief
of the Conference Editorial Board and was elected a Fellow of the Australian
Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.
Dr Hamish Meffin (High-Acuity Program, NICTA) was promoted to Program
Leader and Partner Investigator in the BVA project.
Dr David Ng (High-Acuity Program, NICTA) was awarded two finalist prizes in the
Engineers Australia Annual Awards for his wireless power work.
Professor Rob Shepherd (Preclinical Program, BI) and his team at the Bionics
Institute hosted the 2nd International Conference on Medical Bionics: Neural
Interfaces for Damaged Nerves, 20-23 November 2011, Australia.
Associate Professor Gregg Suaning (Wide-View Program, UNSW) and his team at
the University of New South Wales hosted the 3rd International Conference on
Neuroprosthetic Devices on November 25-26, 2011.
Dr Nhan Tran (High-Acuity Program, NICTA) was awarded second place in the
best student paper competition for the Engineering in Medicine and Biology
Conference 2011, held in Boston, USA.
Education
One of BVA’s aims is to develop the next generation of medical bionics experts
through our programs for PhD students and early career researchers, as well as
outreach activities for students and the community.
PhD Student Profiles
Meet Dr Nhan Tran
Nhan is a member of the High-Acuity Device Development team at the
UoM/NICTA and completed his thesis titled ‘A highly flexible stimulator towards a
High-Acuity retinal prosthesis implemented in 65 nm CMOS process’ in 2011.
Nhan presented his paper on the prototype 64-electrode retinal stimulator and
won second prize at the 33rd International Conference of the IEEE Engineering
in Medicine and Biology Society.
Meet Mr Amgad Habib
Amgad is a PhD student in the Stimulation Strategy program at both UNSW and
the University of Western Sydney (UWS).
He is working on assessing the spatial activation profile of the retina under
electrical stimulation by using both calcium imaging and patch clamping
techniques. The results from his research will help inform the development of
effective stimulation of the retina.
Completions in 2011
Ms Megan Abramian (UNSW) ‘Investigation of retinal ganglion cell activation
following epiretinal electrical stimulation with hexagonally-arranged bipolar
electrodes’. Supervised by Professor Nigel Lovell.
Mr Shun Leo Bai (UoM/NICTA) ‘Theory and Design of Wireless Power Supply for
Retinal Prosthesis’. Supervised by Professor Stan Skafidas, Professor Iven
Mareels and Dr David Ng.
Dr Nhan Tran (UoM/NICTA) ‘A highly flexible stimulator for a High-Acuity retinal
prosthesis implemented in 65 nm CMOS process’. Supervised by Professor Stan
Skafidas and Professor Iven Mareels.
Mr David Tsai (UNSW) ‘Elicitation of retinal neural circuitry with vision prosthetic
devices’. Supervised by Professor Nigel Lovell and Professor John Morley.
Mr Jiawei (Jeff) Yang (UoM/NICTA) ‘A Super Low Power MICS Band Receiver on
65 nm CMOS for High Resolution Retinal Prosthesis’. Supervised by Professor
Iven Mareels and Professor Stan Skafidas.
Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
In 2011, two UoM students participated in The Undergraduate Research
Opportunities Program (UROP). UROP is a paid employment scheme designed
to give undergraduate students an early opportunity to experience real life in a
research setting.
Mr Tian Sang worked with Dr Tatiana Kamaneva to build an integrate-and-fire
model of the retina and its response to electrical stimulation.
Mr Misha Wakerman is working with Dr Craig Savage on the implications of
including (or neglecting) eye tracking. Together they looked at the fidelity of head
movements in lieu of eye movements, as well as psychophysical ramifications.
“I’m about half way through my computer science degree, so I’ve had no biology
experience before. Coming into a project like this really expands your horizons,
but I’ve enjoyed what I’ve learnt and found the process really interesting.”
“One of the things I’ve enjoyed most is going through the research process as
you get very little experience of this in an undergraduate degree. So for example,
going through planning your work and then revising your approach as challenges
arise; the opportunity to gain this experience at an early stage in my career is
invaluable.”
Mr Ronald Leung commenced his work at the BI as a UROP student and is now in
his second year of a PhD (at the BI and the UoM). He is a member of the
preclinical team and is working on the implantation and removal of the Wide-View
bionic eye.
Secondary School and University Student Outreach
Throughout 2011, BVA staff and students gave a number of presentations to high
school and university students. This enabled BVA researchers to engage with a
range of audiences and provided an opportunity to promote the sciences to a
younger audience. Some of the highlights included:

Ms Samantha Lichter from the Melbourne Materials Institute (MMI) gave a
talk as part of the Melbourne Graduate School of Education Summer
School Program. Sam spoke about her work with diamond materials for
the bionic eye.

Dr David Nayagam (BI) presented updates on the bionic eye project to
students at ‘Space School’ for Victorian high school students, hosted by
the Victorian Space Science Education Centre, and at the national
Aerospace Futures 2011 Conference.

Dr Lauren Ayton and Mr Nicholas Opie (CERA) hosted two small school
tours of the clinical facilities at CERA.

BI PhD students Mr Sam John and Mr Ronald Leung presented an overview
of bionic eye research to a group of high school students as part of the
‘Bringing Science to Life’ program organised by the Peter MacCallum
Cancer Centre.

Project Manager Ms Tamara Brawn spoke about the project and her work at
the Victorian Schools Science Talent Search Awards.
PhD and early career researcher training program
At the 2011 Research Retreat in Canberra, PhD students attended a media
training session to provide them with an understanding of the media’s role in
scientific research. Students had the opportunity to participate in mock interviews
and role plays and gained an appreciation of what it is like to speak about their
work with journalists. Thank you to BVA Communications Manager, Ms Veronika
Gouskova and Ms Leanne O’Rourkes and Mr Martyn Pearce (ANU) for delivering
the session.
Also at the Research Retreat, PhD students attended a session on Intellectual
Property, and laboratory notebook policies and guidelines led by BVA Project
Manager, Ms Tamara Brawn.
In November BVA hosted a workshop at the Bionic Institute’s 2nd International
Medical Bionics Conference. This interactive workshop – Building Networks for
Success: A Career Development Workshop, was accessible for all PhD Students
and Early Career Researchers at the conference. This workshop was facilitated
by Dr Stella Clark. More career development activities for PhD students and
Early Career Researchers are planned for 2012.
International Research Fellowship
Mr Nicholas Apollo is a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar from the University of
Pittsburgh who is working with the Clinical team at CERA to develop a better
method of analysing retinal function in patients with advanced retinal
degeneration.
The Fulbright Program is one of the largest and most prestigious educational
exchange programs in the world. The Australian-American Fulbright Commission
is one of over 50 Fulbright Commissions in the world who work with the United
States Department of State to facilitate the Fulbright Program between the United
States and over 155 countries worldwide.
“It is my hope that I will gain valuable ideas and experiences in Australia, both of
which will be directly applicable to my future career as an innovative medical
practitioner and engineer. Additionally, I am eager to exchange ideas and interact
directly with vision impaired patients, research scientists, and engineers in
Australia to work toward improving the safety, quality of life, and overall wellbeing of the blind members of society.”
Research Report
In 2011, the leadership team and governing board consolidated our working and
reporting structure into two principal programs, the Wide-View Program and the
High-Acuity Program, to better respond to the inherent challenges of our global
goal. This streamlined structure allows researchers to better integrate efforts
across BVA activities in Device Development, Stimulation Strategy, Preclinical,
Clinical and Surgical Programs.
The team has made remarkable progress throughout 2011.
Wide-View Principal Program
The Wide-View retinal implant builds upon technologies that have been
successfully employed in cochlear implants and it uses materials whose
biocompatibility and biostability have been established and have received
regulatory approval in other implanted devices. The suprachoroidal placement of
the device in the eye plays an important role in protecting the retina from
mechanical damage during insertion and helps to maintain it in position. The
Wide-View device will incorporate a microchip with 98 stimulating electrodes and
aims to provide increased mobility for patients to assist them in safely moving
around their environment.
Surgeons and engineers have continued to refine the shape and mechanical
characteristics of the retinal implant for the Wide-View device throughout 2011.
This involves optimising the shape, size, thickness and flexibility of the implant,
as well as establishing the most appropriate way of aligning the implantable
components with the structure of the eye.
The surgical team at CERA and the RVEEH has developed the necessary tools
and techniques to safely implant the Wide-View device. During this process they
have been providing feedback to UNSW engineers regarding the mechanical
handling of the device. This progress has allowed the team to move into testing
the electrical efficacy and safety at the BI and UNSW, evaluating both the
performance of the device and relevant stimulation strategies to make sure the
best patient outcomes can be achieved. The preclinical team at the BI has
optimised testing protocols for the suprachoroidal implantation of the electrode
array. This includes testing for mechanical stability and biocompatability.
The stimulation strategy teams from UNSW, UWS, NVRI and UoM, with the
preclinical team from BI, have commenced experiments to record neural
responses and spike trains during single electrode and multi-focal stimulation.
Researchers have been using in vitro and in vivo data to create models of the
retina and the retina/visual cortex connection. This increased understanding of
the visual system informs the development and optimisation of stimulation
strategies. These patterns of stimulation are then tested using computer
modelling, and validated through further in vitro and in vivo testing. Continuing
testing is ongoing to ensure the safety of electrical stimulation strategies.
In March, device development engineers at UNSW completed the fabrication of
the microchip that will be implanted into the eye to drive the Wide-View electrode
array. This microchip has been successfully bench tested and represents a big
step forward in the progress of implant technology. It affords researchers the
possibility to stimulate multiple sites simultaneously and gain advantage from
BVA’s hexagonal stimulation strategy methods. Consequently, microelectronics
engineers have now moved on to designing the microchip for the behind-the-earunit, integrating a novel two-wire interface system for providing both power and
data to the stimulator. The team is now investigating ways that the design of this
behind-the-ear microchip can be used with both the Wide-View and High-Acuity
implants, supporting common external components across both devices.
High-Acuity Principal Program
The High-Acuity retinal implant incorporates a number of exciting and new
technologies, such as polycrystalline diamond material capable of providing
electrical stimulation to the retina. The High-Acuity device aims to provide
functional central vision to the user, to assist with tasks such as face-recognition
and reading large print. The device will incorporate an electrode array with up to
1024 stimulating electrodes.
Microelectronics engineers at NICTA’s Victorian Research Laboratory and UoM
have developed the first generation microchip to test features of the stimulation
circuitry as well as a data and power transfer system for the High-Acuity retinal
implant. This microchip was sent for fabrication at IBM and researchers have
since successfully completed bench tests, using an electronics probe station and
printed circuit board testing. The team is now developing a version of the
microchip that integrates all required components to drive up to 1000 electrodes
for the High-Acuity retinal implant.
Researchers and surgeons continue to work through the iterative process of finetuning the design of the High-Acuity device to ensure it can be safely implanted.
A large part of this process is developing an appropriate surgical technique and
method for securing the electrode array in place for the long term.
The design of the electrode array also involves optimising the electrode shape
using diamond materials and evaluating the effectiveness of penetrating versus
flat electrodes. Researchers at NVRI have developed sophisticated techniques
which enable them to assess the ability of penetrating and surface electrodes to
elicit responses in retinal tissue samples. This work is contributing to our
understanding of optimal electrode design for different implant locations within
the eye and the most effective means of stimulating retinal cells. In addition,
researchers at the BI have refined techniques to test the safety and efficacy of
device components.
In 2011, the team at MMI established that diamond can be used as a stimulating
interface for electrodes. Further, researchers have fabricated BVA’s first
electrode array with electrically isolated electrodes. Isolation is an important
development because it enables individual control of each electrode (as opposed
to a group of electrodes acting together). This is required to reduce the “pixel”
size to a level necessary to increase the quality of vision that patients will
experience. The preclinical team at the BI has commenced long-term electrical
stimulation of the electrode array in bench top testing in saline to assess the
stability of the electrode array material.
The High-Acuity team has also developed a promising technique to fabricate and
place hermetic feed-throughs; connections between the electrode array and the
microchip. Further testing is required to confirm the hermeticity of the
feedthrough. To ensure the implant is safely sealed, materials scientists have
optimised laser milling of diamond material to make a box that will encapsulate
the device, keeping the delicate electronics safe from the body and the body safe
from the electronics.
Research Common to both Principal Programs
To support the two principal programs, the vision that patients may experience
with various stimulation strategies is being tested using computer models,
simulations of the retina and its response to electrical activation. This approach
has given researchers at the Universities of Melbourne and New South Wales
insights into how electrical stimulation excites neurons in the retina. In turn this is
aiding the development of computer algorithms that convert images into patterns
of electrical stimulation of the retina.
The team at NICTA’s Canberra Research Laboratory (CRL) has implemented a
series of vision processing and stimulation strategies on a head-mounted display
to test and optimise what features will be most useful for bionic eye recipients.
These include orientation and mobility methods for emphasising trip hazards and
overhanging obstacles, which are difficult to see in conventional retinal implant
vision processing approaches, as well as methods for viewing faces with the
High-Acuity device. This ability to test the type of images recipients are likely to
experience with sighted volunteers ahead of clinical testing is being used by both
principal programs. These simulated prosthetic vision trials have demonstrated
the benefits of the methods in a controlled indoor mobility course. The aim is to
understand how eye and head movements affect the brain’s ability to interpret
retinal activity.
At the heart of all the engineering, design, safety and efficacy testing, is the need
to develop retinal implants that will be useful in clinical practice. The preclinical
team at the BI, and the clinical and surgical teams at CERA have been
instrumental in providing feedback into the iterative design process loop.
Experimental surgery and an optical coherence tomography (OCT) study of the
retinal contour profile in patients with retinitis pigmentosa have been conducted
to facilitate the electrode design. Researchers at CERA are also continuing to
develop protocols for selection and assessment of the first device recipients.
Throughout 2011, clinicians continued recruiting people with vision impairment to
be involved in studies about the structure and function of the retina in retinitis
pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. Recruitment is mostly done
through retinal degeneration patient support groups and eye care practitioner
referrals. Participants with retinitis pigmentosa have been assessed by the
clinicial team at CERA to determine residual function, retinal structure and
current levels of vision related activities. From these studies, protocols for
assessment of potential implant recipients have been developed. Furthermore, in
consultation with psychologists and orientation and movement trainers, the
clinical team has been researching and collating the factors that are likely to
contribute to the best functional outcome for future recipients.
The psychophysics team at the BI are developing a flexible system and protocols
for psychophysical testing of implanted patients.
Finally, design engineers are working to develop external components and
hardware to capture and process images that will be applicable to both the WideView and High-Acuity devices. Researchers are in the initial stages of consulting
with members of the vision impaired community to obtain feedback on early
designs and will continue optimising the external components with patients and
clinicians.
Research Common to both Principal Programs
To support the two principal programs, the vision that patients may experience
with various stimulation strategies is being tested using computer models,
simulations of the retina and its response to electrical activation. This approach
has given researchers at the Universities of Melbourne and New South Wales
insights into how electrical stimulation excites neurons in the retina. In turn this is
aiding the development of computer algorithms that convert images into patterns
of electrical stimulation of the retina.
The team at NICTA’s Canberra Research Laboratory (CRL) has implemented a
series of vision processing and stimulation strategies on a head-mounted display
to test and optimise what features will be most useful for bionic eye recipients.
These include orientation and mobility methods for emphasising trip hazards and
overhanging obstacles, which are difficult to see in conventional retinal implant
vision processing approaches, as well as methods for viewing faces with the
High-Acuity device. This ability to test the type of images recipients are likely to
experience with sighted volunteers ahead of clinical testing is being used by both
principal programs. These simulated prosthetic vision trials have demonstrated
the benefits of the methods in a controlled indoor mobility course. The aim is to
understand how eye and head movements affect the brain’s ability to interpret
retinal activity.
At the heart of all the engineering, design, safety and efficacy testing, is the need
to develop retinal implants that will be useful in clinical practice. The preclinical
team at the BI, and the clinical and surgical teams at CERA have been
instrumental in providing feedback into the iterative design process loop.
Experimental surgery and an optical coherence tomography (OCT) study of the
retinal contour profile in patients with retinitis pigmentosa have been conducted
to facilitate the electrode design. Researchers at CERA are also continuing to
develop protocols for selection and assessment of the first device recipients.
Throughout 2011, clinicians continued recruiting people with vision impairment to
be involved in studies about the structure and function of the retina in retinitis
pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. Recruitment is mostly done
through retinal degeneration patient support groups and eye care practitioner
referrals. Participants with retinitis pigmentosa have been assessed by the
clinicial team at CERA to determine residual function, retinal structure and
current levels of vision related activities. From these studies, protocols for
assessment of potential implant recipients have been developed. Furthermore, in
consultation with psychologists and orientation and movement trainers, the
clinical team has been researching and collating the factors that are likely to
contribute to the best functional outcome for future recipients.
The psychophysics team at the BI are developing a flexible system and protocols
for psychophysical testing of implanted patients.
Finally, design engineers are working to develop external components and
hardware to capture and process images that will be applicable to both the WideView and High-Acuity devices. Researchers are in the initial stages of consulting
with members of the vision impaired community to obtain feedback on early
designs and will continue optimising the external components with patients and
clinicians.
Visitors, events and communication
Research Retreat
In June researchers came together for an annual scientific planning retreat, held
at the Rydges Hotel on Capital Hill, Canberra. This was a rare opportunity for the
whole team of BVA researchers and students to come together for a few days of
important discussions and planning workshops.
Discussion Rounds: Monash Vision Group
BVA and Monash Vision Group met throughout the year (May, July, September
and December) to discuss common challenges and identify opportunities for
collaboration and information sharing. The meetings canvassed issues of
regulation for medical devices; psychophysics, orientation and mobility methods
for patient testing; training and professional development for students and early
career researchers; and outreach activities for the vision impaired community.
Several resulting initiatives will be implemented in 2012.
Research Showcases in Sydney and Melbourne
To celebrate our achievements in 2011, BVA hosted research showcase events
in Sydney and Melbourne. This was an opportunity to bring together key
stakeholders and supporters of the project and to provide an update on research
progress. Those attending also had the opportunity to have a hands-on
experience with elements of the technology in development, with researchers
displaying microchips, implant prototypes, bionic vision simulations and eye
tracking demonstrations. BVA was pleased to welcome Ms Joan Smith (Guide
Dogs Victoria), Dr Kevin Murfitt (Vision Australia) and Mr Leighton Boyd (Retina
Australia) to the Melbourne event as representatives of the vision impaired
community. Many thanks to Joan for sharing her experience of retinitis
pigmentosa with attendees.
Public Lecture: Professor Dominique Durand, 1 March 2011
Professor Dominique Durand gave a seminar at UNSW on neural interfacing with
the peripheral nervous system and spoke about the development of an electrode
array capable of selective fascicle stimulation and selective recording.
Public Lecture: Professor Thomas Stieglitz, 3 March 2011
Professor Dr Stieglitz (below) presented a public lecture in Melbourne, sponsored
by the ICT for Life Sciences Forum. Professor Dr Stieglitz explained his research
in the development of electrode arrays for pre-surgical epilepsy diagnosis and for
interfacing with the peripheral nervous system.
Public Lecture: Professor Mark Blumenkranz, 11 and 13 October
2011
Stanford Artificial Vision Project
During his Australian visit in October, Professor Mark Blumenkranz addressed
audiences in Sydney (11 October) and Melbourne (13 October) to present his
work on the design and initial preclinical testing of a photovoltaic retinal
prosthesis fabricated with pixel density as high as 256 pixels/mm. The Sydney
lecture was hosted by the UNSW. In Melbourne, the event was presented as part
of World Sight Day (13 October) in conjunction with the CERA and RVEEH.
2nd International Conference on Medical Bionics
BVA was a proud sponsor of the 2nd International Conference on Medical
Bionics: Neural Interfaces for Damaged Nerves, held on Philip Island, 20-23
November 2011. Professor Rob Shepherd and his team at the BI are to be
congratulated for an outstanding conference. The event attracted a large number
of international visitors including BVA Sponsored key note speaker, renowned
retinal surgeon Dr Helmut Sachs, as well as a career development workshop for
PhD students and early career researchers.
3rd International Conference on Neuroprosthetic Devices
Also in November 2011, Associate Professor Gregg Suaning and his team at
UNSW hosted the 3rd International Conference on Neuroprosthetic Devices in
Sydney. Once again, BVA was a proud sponsor, supporting Dr Ethan Cohen
from the United States Food and Drug Administration, who presented a keynote
address titled: Safety of retinal stimulation: development of novel methods for
imaging overstimulation of neural tissue in real time.
Associate Professor Gregg Suaning and his team are to be commended for a
well-attended and informative conference.
Media coverage
Throughout the year, more than 60 media mentions appeared in national and
international media channels, including print, TV and radio. Further, there were
approximately 60 online blog mentions about the project. BVA researchers and
students continue to be approached by the media for interviews and comment as
the project progresses. Notable highlights included ABC’s Catalyst segment
about the project, showcasing the indoor mobility course at NICTA’s Canberra
Laboratory, as well as Channel 10’s Saturday morning children’s science show,
SCOPE running a piece about diamond materials for the bionic eye.
BVA continues to receive queries about the project via the website contact form.
In 2011, BVA received 172 queries through the website regarding patient tests,
internships and media requests.
Events for the vision impaired community
Throughout the year, BVA participated in a number of events designed to inform
members of the vision impaired community about the project’s progress. These
events also enabled researchers and staff to respond to queries about
participating in patient tests.
BVA jointly attended Vision Australia’s Melbourne and Sydney Texpo events in
September with the Monash Vision Group. The community responded very well
to having both groups exhibiting together and showcasing the complementary
research and design approaches.
Clinical research coordinator Dr Lauren Ayton (CERA) also spoke at a number of
events organised by and for the vision impaired community including Vision
Australia’s Round Table on Information Access (22 May), the Blind Citizens of
Australia National Convention (15 October), Retina Australia AGM (22 October),
IT Enables Symposium at the State Library (25 November) and the Guide Dogs
Victoria AGM (7 December).
Commercialisation
Bionic Vision Technologies (BVT) Pty Ltd (ACN 124 162 634) (BVT) has been
established to commercialise the technology developed by BVA. As the BVA
project moves from the research phase to development and commercialisation,
the company is playing an important role in providing commercial direction to our
plans to bring a retinal implant to the market.
Report from Chair of BVT
The BVT Board’s focus in 2011 was to consider the current status of the BVA
project from the perspective of its IP position and the projected commercialisation
pathway. The Board sees 2012 as a key turning point for the company during
which the company will need to increase its level of activity and internal
capabilities to rise to the challenge of successfully taking BVA-developed
technology to market.
The company has recognised, in consultation with the BVA Director, that there is
a need to provide greater commercial direction to the BVA IP management
process. BVA’s IP Manager, Dr Ross McFarlane from the firm Phillips Ormonde
Fitzpatrick is providing important IP support in this area.
Further, BVA engaged the services of Waterfall Commercialisation to help us
identify areas of risk across the project and gaps in our commercialisation
activities. BVT has begun the process of recruiting its first employee who will lead
the company during the next period of its development.
Dr Colin Sutton, BVT Chair
Intellectual Property
The BVA consortium is actively developing a portfolio of leading edge intellectual
property, protected as appropriate by mechanisms such as patents and trade
secrets. During the year we filed a number of new provisional patent applications,
and continued to refine and prosecute the more mature patents in our portfolio.
We have implemented clear processes for identifying and capturing new
intellectual property as it arises, and work closely with professional advisers to
ensure sound portfolio management practices.
IP Advisory Group
The Intellectual Property Advisory Group (IPAG) is responsible for making
recommendations to the Director on aspects of intellectual property relevant to
the activities and interests of BVA. This includes recommendations to the
Director regarding the extent to which BVA should support parties to the Joint
Venture Agreement in pursing patent protection for Initiative IP, overseeing the
portfolio of patents and patent applications owned by the parties which is able to
be licensed to BVT, and monitoring patent rights maintained by third parties. It is
planned that BVT will assume responsibility for many of these functions from
2012.
The IP Advisory Group consists of: Professor Peter Blamey (Chair) (BI); Dr Kate
Fox (UoM); Mr Peter Lightbody (NICTA); Associate Professor Gregg Suaning
(UNSW); and Dr Khay-Lin Teoh (CERA). The group is supported by the IP
Manager.
BVT Board 2011
Dr Colin Sutton (Chair)
Director, NewSouth Innovations Pty Ltd
Deputy Chairman, Bionic Vision Australia
Dr Charlie Day
Project Director – Carlton Connect, The University of Melbourne
Associate Professor Laurent Rivory
Director, Research Strategy Office, The University of New South Wales
Professor Peter Blamey (until 19 October) Deputy Director (IP and
Commercialisation), The Bionics Institute
Julie Anne Quinn (Company Secretary) General Manager, Bionic Vision Australia
Financial Report
Income Statement for the year ended 31 December 2011
Income
Cash Revenue
Australian Research Council Funding: 10,374,271
Total Cash Revenue: 10,374,271
In Kind Contributions
Member Organisations: 11,461,400
Partner Organisations: 503,275
Total In Kind Contributions: 11,964,675
Total Cash Revenue and In Kind Contributions: 22,338,946
Expenditure
Cash
Research Operations: 9,868,329 (Equipment: Research cash expenditure for
2011 includes equipment expenditure of $2,892,814)
Business Operations: 1,213,390
Total Cash Expenditure: 11,081,719
In Kind
Research Operations:11,101,108
Business Operations: 863,568
Total in Kind Expenses: 11,964,675
Total Cash and In Kind Expenses: 23,046,394
2011 Balance: -707,448
Carry Forward Balance from 2010: 9,347,057
Balance of Funds to be carried forward: 8,639,609 (Surplus: The surplus is
largely a flow on from the later than expected commencement of operations in
2010 and will be carried forward into 2012. Included in the balance carried
forward is $1,731,045 set aside to fund Strategic Research Initiatives).
Staff and Students
Bionics Institute
Researchers
Ms Rebecca Argent
BSc (Otago)
Prof Peter Blamey
BSc (Hons) (ANU), PhD (Monash)
Mr Owen Burns
BE (Mech) (Wollongong)
Ms Anne Coco
BSc (Hons)
Mr Paul Crossley
Dr James Fallon
BE (Hons), BSc, PhD
Ms Helen Feng
Ms Alexia Freemantle
BSc (Hons) (Deakin)
Mr Mark Harrison
BE (PIT), PGradDip (Digital Comp Eng) (RMIT)
Dr Tom Landry (Concluded in April)
BSc (Hons), PhD (Melb)
Ms Vanessa Maxim
BBSc (Latrobe), Adv Dip Eng Tech (NMIT)
Prof Hugh McDermott
BAppSc (Hons) (Melb), PhD (Melb)
Ms Ceara McGowan
BSc (Hons) (RMIT)
Ms Michelle McPhedran
BBSc (La Trobe)
Mr Rodney Millard
DipElecE
Dr David Nayagam
BSc/BE (Hons) (Melb), PhD (Melb)
Prof Peter Seligman
BE, PhD (Monash)
Prof Rob Shepherd
BSc, GradDipEd, PhD (Melb)
Dr Mohit Shivdasani
BE (Hons) (Mumbai), ME (La Trobe), PhD (La Trobe)
Mr Nicholas Sinclair
BE (Hons) (Swinburne), BSc (Swinburne)
Mr Kyle Slater (concluded in December)
BE (Hons) (Swinburne), BSc (Swinburne)
A/Prof Chris Williams
BSc (Waikato), MSc (Hons) (Waikato), PhD (Auckland)
Dr Jin Xu
MD MMed, DipRad, MIR
Students
Ms Rosemary Cicione
BE (La Trobe), MBioE (La Trobe)
Ms Melanie Gault
BSc (BiomedEng), MSc (BiomedEng) (Vanderbilt, USA)
Mr Sam John
B Med Elect (VIT, India), MElecE (La Trobe)
Mr Ronald Leung
BE (Melb)
Mr Austin Mueller
BSc (BioEng) (Lausanne, Switzerland)
Mr Joel Villalobos
BE (Elect Sys Eng) (Mexico)
Centre for Eye Research Australia
Researchers
Dr Penny Allen
MBBS, FRANZCO
Dr Khin-Zaw Aung
MBBS (Burma), Grad Dip Applied Science (Swinburne)
Dr Lauren Ayton
BOptom (Melb), PhD (Melb), Grad Cert Oc Ther (UNSW)
Ms Elizabeth Bowman (concluded in August)
BSc (Hons), MSc
Dr Lucy Busija (Concluded in August)
BA (Hons) (Swinburne), Grad Dip HealthStat (Swinburne), MSc (Swinburne),PhD
(Melb)
Prof Jonathan Crowston
MBBS (London), BSc (London), PhD (UCL), FRANZCP, FRCophth (UK)
Ms Lil Deverell
BEd, Grad Dip in Orientation and Mobility
Dr Peter Dimitrov
MBBS (Ukraine), BOrth (Hons) (La Trobe)
Prof Robyn Guymer
MBBS (Melb), PhD (Melb), FRANZCO
Dr Sharon Bentley (Haymes)
BOptom (Melb), PhD (Melb)
Prof Jill Keeffe
BA (New England), PhD (Melb)
Dr Chi Luu
BOrthoptics (Hons) (La Trobe), GradDip Epidemiology and Biostatistics (Melb),
PhD (La Trobe)
Dr Galina Makayeva
MBBS, PhD (Odessa)
Dr Mark McCombe
MBBS, FRANZCO
Dr Wilson Heriot
MBBS, FRANZCO
Mr Nicholas Opie
BE (Hons) / BSc (Monash), PhD (Melb)
Ms Mary Varsamidis
BSc, BOrth (La Trobe)
Dr Jonathan Yeoh
MBBS, FRANZCO
Students
Mr Felix Aplin (joint supervision with University of Melbourne)
BSc (Hons) (ANU)
Mr Nicholas Apollo
BS (Pittsburgh)
Dr Rob Finger
MD (Cologne), MIH (Curtin)
NICTA
Researchers (CRL)
A/Prof Nick Barnes
BSc (Hons) (Melb), PhD (Melb)
Ms Viorica Botea (Concluded in December)
BSc (Bucharest), MSc (Alberta)
Mr Hugh Dennett
BSc (Hons) (ANU)
Dr Xuming He
PhD (Toronto)
Ms Junae Kim
BSc (EWHA), MSc (POSTECH), ME (ANU)
Dr Yi Li
PhD (Maryland)
Dr Paulette Lieby
PhD (Charles Darwin)
Dr Nianjun Liu
PhD (Queensland)
Dr Chris McCarthy
PhD (ANU)
Ms Adele Scott
BSc (ANU), BE (ANU)
Dr Chunhua Shen
PhD (Adelaide)
Mr Ashley Stacey
BE CompSys (Canberra), MComp (Hons) (ANU)
Dr Janine Walker
MA, MAPS, PhD (Melb)
Students (CRL) – enrolled at the Australian National University
Mr Khurrum Aftab
MCompSc (Lahor)
Mr Lachlan Horne
BE (Adelaide), BMaCompSc (Adelaide)
Mr Kyoungup Park
MSc (Southern California)
Mr Samunda Perera
BSc (Hons) (Moratuwa)
Mr Song Wang
BEng (Harbin Inst of Tech), MPhil (HKU)
Mr Tao Wang
BE (South China)
Researchers (VRL)
Mr Clive Boyd
MSc (Melb)
Dr Mark Halpern
PhD (Melb)
Dr Hamish Meffin
BSc (Adel) (Hons), PhD (Sydney)
Dr David Ng
BEng (Singapore), MSc (Singapore), PhD (Nara)
Prof Stan Skafidas
BE (Hons) (Melb), BSc (Melb), MESc (Melb), PhD (Melb)
Students (VRL) – enrolled at the University of Melbourne
Ms Leila Koushaeian
Mr Fu Meng
BE
University of Melbourne, Anatomy and Cell Biology
Researchers
A/Prof Erica Fletcher
BScOptom (Melb), MSc, PhD (Melb)
Dr Ursula Greferath
BSc (Hons) (Frankfurt), PhD (Frankfurt)
Ms Andrea Rassell
BBiomedSc (Wellington)
Dr Kirstan Vessey
BSc (Hons) (Melb), PhD (Melb)
Students
Ms Susmita Saha
BScEng (Dhaka, Bangladesh)
Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Melbourne School of
Engineering
Researchers
Mr Shun (Leo) Bai
BSc
Prof Anthony Burkitt
BSc (ANU), BSc (ANU), PhD (Edinburgh)
Dr Hosung Chun
BE (Sydney), PhD (UNSW)
A/Prof David Grayden
BSc (Melb), BE (Melb), PhD (Melb)
Dr Colin Hales
BE (Electrical) (Monash), CAS (Brunel), PhD (Melb)
Dr Sam (Yuhua) He
BSc (Nankai), MSc (Nankai)
Dr Tatiana Kameneva
BSc (Kazakhstan), MSc (Kazakhstan), PhD (Melb)
Mr Omid Kavahei
ME (Iran), PhD (Adelaide)
Mr Vijay Muktamath
BE (India), ME (RMIT)
Dr Craig Savage
BSc (Northwestern), MSc (Arizona), MBA (Arizona), PhD (Melb)
Dr Bahman Tahayori
BE (Shiraz), ME (Tehran), PhD (Melb)
Dr Nhan Tran
MSc (Kyung Hee)
Mr Jiawei (Jeff) Yang
BE (Zhejiang)
Mr Yuanyuan Yang
BE (China), ME (China)
Students
Ms Isabell Kiral-Kornek
Dipl.-Ing. (Hanover, Germany)
Mr Matias Maturana
BSc (Melb), BA (Melb)
Ms Emily O’Brien
BEng (Hons) (Flinders), BSc (Flinders)
Mr Evgeni Sergeev
BE (Elect&Electr) (Hons), BCM (Hons) (Western Australia)
Mr Nick Venables
Melbourne Materials Institute
Researchers
Dr Kate Fox
BEng (Hons)/BSc (Flinders), PhD (UniSA), MIP (UTS)
Dr Kumar Ganesan
BSc (Hons) (Jaffna), MSc (Peradeniya), PhD (Canterbury)
Dr David Garrett
BSc (Hons) (Canterbury), PhD (Canterbury)
Prof Steven Prawer
BSc (Monash), PhD (Monash),
DSc (Melb), FAA
Students
Ms Samantha Lichter
BEng (Hons)/BSc (Monash)
Mr Ashley Rozario (Intern,
from September 2011)
Dip Biotech (Singapore)
Ms Ella Slonim (Intern, from September – December 2011)
University of New South Wales, Graduate School of Biomedical
Engineering
Researchers
Dr Miganoosh Abramian
BSc (Hons) (Azad), MBiomedE (UNSW) (joint position with
University of Melbourne)
Mr Stefan Audick
Dipl. Ing. (Krefeld, Germany)
Mr Brandon Bosse
BSc (UCSD), MSc (Tübingen)
Mr Kain Bozzetto
BE (UNSW), ME (UNSW)
Ms Alexandra Boulgakov
Mr Philip Byrnes-Preston
BE (UNSW)
Dr Spencer Chen
BE (Hons) (UNSW), MBiomedE (UNSW), PhD (UNSW)
Mr Chris Dodds
BE (Hons) (UNSW), MBiomedE (UNSW)
Dr Socrates Dokos
BE (Hons) (UNSW), PhD (UNSW)
Mr Lars Elmgreen (Concluded in April)
ME (Denmark)
Dr Rylie Green
BE (UNSW), ME (UNSW), PhD (UNSW)
Ms Cherry Ying Yan Ho
BEng (Sydney) ME (Sydney)
Ms Wenqi Huang
ME (UNSW)
Mr Saiful Joarder
BSc (Bangladesh), MSc (Sydney)
Mr Louis Jung
BTeleE (UNSW), ME (UNSW)
Mr Fabian Kohler (concluded in July)
Mr Sergej Kolke
DipMechE (RUB)
Mr Tom Kulaga
BEng Hons (UNSW), BSc (UNSW)
Mr William Lim
BE (Hons) (UNSW), MBiomedE (UNSW)
Prof Nigel Lovell
BE (Hons) (UNSW), PhD (UNSW)
Dr Paul Matteucci
BE PhD (Genova)
Mr Manohar Nayak
BE (USyd)
Mr Apoorv Mintri
BE Biomedical Engineering (Sydney)
Mr Stephen Mow
Mr. David Moussa (Concluded in June)
Mr Mo Nikro
BE Dip Eng. Prac. (UTS)
Mr Sunil Patel
BE (Hons) (UNSW) MBiomedE (UNSW)
Mr Thomas Prischenk (concluded in July)
BSc (Freiburg)
A/Prof Gregg Suaning
BSc (California), MSc (California), PhD (UNSW)
Mr David Tsai
BE (Hons) (UNSW), MBiomedE (UNSW), PhD (UNSW)
Ms Vivienne Wong
BE (Hons) (UNSW) MBiomedE (UNSW)
Dr Robert Wilke
BE (Hons) (Roma Tre), MSc (Tübingen), MD (Tübingen)
Students
Mr Amr Al Abed
BMSc (Hons) (UNSW), MBioE (UNSW)
Mr Umar Ansari
BE (Hons) (NUST)
Mr Charles Chan (February – June)
Mr Calvin D. Eiber
BSc (Case Western Reserve University)
Mr Alexander Emperle
(Concluded in November)
Mr Thomas Guenther
MSc (IMTEK, Freiburg)
Mr Tianruo Guo
BE (Hons) (Beijing), ME (UNSW)
Mr Amgad Habib
BSc (Hons) (Waterloo)
Ms Gita Khalili
BSc (Hons) (Azad), MSc (Azad)
Ms Lauren Meredith (February – June)
Ms Pamela Nassif (February – June)
Ms Nazaha Riffah (February – June)
Mr Nitzan Shany
BE (Hons)
Mr Hamza Toor
BSc (Riphah)
Ms Jennifer Tran (February – June)
Mr Shijie Yin
BE (Hons) (Auckland)
School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications
Researchers
Dr Torsten Lehmann
MScEE PhD (Denmark)
University of Western Sydney
Researchers
Dr Morven Cameron
BSc Neuroscience (Manchester), PhD Neuroscience (Manchester)
Prof John Morley
BSc (LaTrobe), MSc (Melb), PhD (Melb)
The Australian National University / NVRI
Researchers
Dr Shaun Cloherty
BE, PhD
Prof Michael Ibbotson
BSc, PhD (London)
Dr Brendan O’Brien
BA, PhD
Students
Mr Alex Hadjinicolaou
BE
Mr Raymond Wong
BE, MSc
BVA Executive Team
Mr Wayne Bahr
Finance Officer, BCom (Tas)
Ms Tamara Brawn
Project Manager, BA (La Trobe), BBSc (Hons) (La Trobe), Grad Dip Ed (Melb),
MBA (UNSW)
Ms Mathilde Escudie
Risk Intern, BSc (Ensib)
Ms Alana Faigen
Communications Assistant, BA (Monash), MCom (RMIT)
Ms Veronika Gouskova
Marketing and Communications Manager, BCom (Melb), MCom (RMIT)
Ms Tracy Painter
Executive Officer
Ms Julie Anne Quinn
General Manager, BAppSc (RMIT), Grad Dip Mktg (Monash), ME (RMIT)
Dr Alan Woods (July – December)
Laboratory Practices Consultant (Medical Devices), BSc (Hons) (Monash), PhD
(Monash)
Contributing Research Collaborators
Individuals
Dr Larry Abel
Dept of Optometry and Vision Sciences
University of Melbourne
Ms Elisa Borg (concluded in December)
Department of Otolaryngology, University of Melbourne
Mr Hilary Fong
Consultant
Dr Barry Gow
Senior Visiting Fellow
University of New South Wales
Dr Alan Heritage
Production Microbiologist: Cleanroom Device Manufacture and Sterilisation
Cochlear Ltd
Prof Peter Hunter
Director, Auckland Bioengineering Institute
Dr Elinore McKone
QEII Discovery Fellow Professor, Australian National University
Dr Sue Pierce
Veterinary Surgeon, St Vincent’s Hospital
A/Prof Andrew Rhys
University of Sydney, UNSW
Dr Ross Smith
Research Fellow, University of Adelaide
Prof Bruce Thomas
University of Adelaide
Dr Ehsan Vaghefi
Research Fellow, Auckland Bioengineering Institute
Organisations
RayMax Lasers
St Vincent’s Pathology and Histology
Bio21 Imaging
Johnson Matthey
IBM
Waterfall Commercialisation Group
Phillips Ormonde Fitzpatrick
Publications Listing
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications and Full Conference Papers
1. Abramian, M., Lovell, N.H., Morley, J.W., Suaning, G.J., Dokos, S. (2011),
‘Activation of retinal ganglion cells following epiretinal electrical stimulation
with hexagonally-arranged bipolar electrodes.’ Journal of Neural
Engineering, vol. 8, no. 3, 035004.
2. Bai, S., Skafidas, S., ‘A Simple Voltage Reference with Ultra Supply
Independency,’ International Symposium on Circuits and Systems, Seoul,
Korea, 20-23 May 2012.
3. Chang, D., Dokos, S., Lovell, N.H. (2011), ‘Temporo-spatial model
construction using the MML and software framework,’ IEEE Transactions
on Biomedical Engineering Letters, vol. 58, no. 12, pp. 3528-31.
4. Cicione, R., Shivdasani M.N., Fallon J.B., Luu, C.D., Allen, P.J., Rathbone,
G.D., Shepherd, R.K., Williams, C.E., ‘Visual cortex responses to
suprachoroidal electrical stimulation of the retina: effects of electrode
return configuration.’ Journal of Neural Enginnering. (Accepted 11 January
2012)
5. Garrett, D., Ganesan, K., Stacey, A., Fox, K., Meffin, H., Prawer, S.
(2012), ‘Ultra-nanocrystalline electrodes: optimising for neural stimulation.’
Journal of Neural Engineering, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 10.
6. Green, R.A., Hassarati, R.T., Goding, J.A., Baek, S., Lovell, N.H.,
Martens, P.J., Poole-Warren, L.A., ‘Conductive hydrogels: Mechanically
robust hybrids for use as biomaterials.’ Macromolecule Bioscience.
(Accepted 20 December 2011)
7. Green, R.A., Toor, H., Dodds, C., Lovell, N.H. (2011), ‘Variation in
performance of platinum electrodes with size and surface roughness,
MEMS-Based Artificial Retinas: Sensing, Materials and Clinical Issues.’
Journal of Sensors and Materials. (Accepted 19 January 2012)
8. Guenther, T., Lovell, N.H., Suaning, G.J. (2011), ‘Bionic Vision: System
Architectures – A Review.’ Expert Reviews of Medical Devices, vol. 9, no.
1, pp. 33-48.
9. Halpern, M. (2011), ‘Achievable peak electrode voltage reduction by
neurostimulators using descending staircase currents to deliver charge.’
Proc. 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology,
Boston, USA, September 2011, pp. 2985-2988.
10. Joarder, S.A., Abramian, M., Suaning, G.J, Lovell, N.H., Dokos, S. (2011),
‘A continuum model of retinal electrical stimulation.’ Journal of Neural
Engineering, vol. 8, no. 6, 066006.
11. Kameneva, T., Meffin, H., Burkitt, A.N. (2011), ‘Modelling intrinsic
electrophysiological properties of ON and OFF retinal ganglion cells.’
Journal of Computer Neuroscience, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 547-561.
12. Koushaeian, L., Muktamath, V., Ghafari, B., Goodarzy, F., Evans, R.,
Skafidas, S., ‘Design of low-power bandgap reference voltage circuit for
epi-retinal prosthesis.’ IEEE International Conference on Broadband
Communications
and Biomedical Applications, Melbourne Australia, 21-24 November 2011.
13. Lieby, P., Barnes, N., McCarthy, C., Liu, N., Dennet, H., Walker, J., Botea,
V., Scott, A., ‘Substituting depth for intensity and real-time phosphene
rendering: Visual navigation under low vision conditions.’ 33rd IEEE
Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA,
September, 2011, pp. 8017-8020.
14. Li, H., Shen, C., Shi, Q., ‘Real time visual tracking using compressive
sensing.’ IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition,
Colorado Springs, USA, June 2011, pp. 1305-1312.
15. McCarthy, C., Barnes, N., Lieby, P., ‘Ground surface segmentation for
navigation with a low resolution visual prosthesis.’ 33rd IEEE Conference
on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA, September, 2011,
pp. 4457-4460.
16. Ng, D.C., Wang, X., Felic, G.K., Bai, S., Boyd, C.S., Halpern, M.E.,
Skafidas, E. (2011), ‘Specific Absorption Rate Distribution on a Human
Head Model from Inductive Power Coils.’ 10th International Symposium on
Electromagnetic Compatibility, York, UK, 26 – 30 September 2011, pp. 7983.
17. Ng, D., Williams, C.E., Allen, P.A., Bai, S., Boyd, C., Meffin, H., Halpern,
M., Skafidas, E. (2011), ‘Wireless power delivery for retina prostheses.’
Proc. 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology,
Boston, USA, September, 2011, pp. 8356-8360.
18. Park, K., Shen, C., Hao, Z., Kim, J., ‘Efficiently learning a distance metric
for large margin nearest neighbour classification.’ National Conference on
Artificial Intelligence, San Francisco, USA, 7-12 August 2011, pp. 453-458.
19. Shen, C., Hao, Z., ‘A direct formulation for totally-corrective multi-class
boosting.’ IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition,
Colorado Springs, USA, June 2011, pp. 2585-2592.
20. Shen, C., Kim, J., Wang, L., ‘A scalable dual approach to semi-definite
metric learning. IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern
Recognition, Colorado Springs, USA, June 2011, pp. 2601-2608.
21. Stacey, A., Li, Y., Barnes, N., ‘A salient information processing system for
bionic eye with application to obstacle avoidance.’ 33rd IEEE Conference
on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA, September 2011,
pp. 5116-5119.
22. Tran, N., Skafidas, E., Yang, J., Bai, S., Fu, M., Ng, D., Halpern, M.,
Mareels, I., ‘A Prototype 64-electrode stimulator in 65nm CMOS process
towards an high density epi-retinal prosthesis.’ Proc. 33rd IEEE
Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA,
September 2011, pp. 6729-6732.
23. Tsai, D., Morley, J.W., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H. (2011), ‘Frequencydependent reduction of voltage-gated sodium channels modulates retinal
ganglion cell response rate to electrical stimulation.’ Journal of Neural
Engineering, vol 8, 066007. (Featured article)
24. Vessey, K.A., Fletcher, E.L. (2012), ‘Rod and Cone Pathway Signalling is
Altered in the PX27 Knock out Mouse,’ Public Library of Science One. Vol
7, no 1, e29990.
25. Villalobos, J., Allen, P.J., McCombe, M.F., Ulaganathan, M., Zamir, E., Ng,
D.C., Shepherd, R.K., Williams, C.E. (2011), ‘Development of a surgical
approach for a Wide-View suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis: evaluation of
implantation trauma.’ Graefe’s Archive for Clinical Experimental
Ophthalmology (Accepted 27 August 2011).
26. Wilke, R., Gabel, V.P., Sachs, H., Schmidt, K.B., Gekeler, F., Besch, D.,
Szurman, P., Stett, A., Wilhelm, B., Peters, T., Harscher, A., Greppmaier,
U., Kibbel, S., Benav, H., Bruckmann, A., Stingl, K., Kusnyerik, A.,
Zrenner, E. (2011), ‘Spatial resolution and perception of patterns mediated
by a subretinal 16-electrode array in patients blinded by hereditary retinal
dystrophies.’ Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, vol 52, no 8,
pp. 5995-6003.
27. Wilke, R.G.H., Khalili Moghadam, G., Lovell, N.H., Suaning, G.J., Dokos,
S., (2011). ‘Electric crosstalk impairs spatial resolution of multi-electrode
arrays in retinal implants.’ Journal of Neural Engineering, vol. 8, no. 4,
046016.
28. Yang, J., Tran, N., Bai, S., Fu, M., Skafidas, E., Halpern, M., Ng, D.C.,
Mareels, I. (2011), ‘A Subthreshold Down Converter Optimized for SuperLow-Power Applications in MICS Band,’ Proc. 33rd IEEE Biomedical
Circuits and Systems Conference, San Diego, USA, pp. 189-192.
29. Yin, S., Lovell, N.H., Suaning, G.J., Dokos, S. (2011), ‘Continuum Model
of Light Response in the Retina.’ Proc. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and
Biology Society, Boston, USA, pp. 908-911.
Peer-Reviewed Internationally Recognised Conference
Publications: Posters, Papers (other than full conference papers)
and Presentations (other than invited presentations)
1. Abramian, M., Dokos S., Lovell, NH., ‘Spatial extent of retinal activation
using epiretinal hex electrodes.’ Australasian Neuroscience Society,
Auckland, New Zealand, February 2011.
2. Abramian M,. Lovell, N.H., Morley, J.W., Suaning, G.J., Dokos, S.,
‘Simulated 3D retinal ganglion cell response to electrical stimulation.’ Proc.
International Conference on Neuroprosthetic Devices, Sydney, Australia,
25-26 November 2011.
3. Allen, P.J., ‘Fundamentals of a Retinal Prosthesis: A surgical perspective
of suprachoroidal and epiretinal prostheses’ Second International
Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November
2011.
4. Allen, P.J., McCombe, M.F., Yeoh, J., Luu, C.D., Villalobos, J.,
Shivdasani, M., Nayagam, D., Lovell, N., Suaning, G., Williams, C.,
Shepherd, R., Guymer, R.H., ‘To develop a cat model for chronic active
stimulation with a wide-field suprachoroidal array to aid in the
development of a human low resolution device.’ The Retina Society 44th
Annual Scientific Meeting, Rome, Italy, 21-25 September 2011.
5. Anenden, M.P., Svehla., M. Lovell, N.H., Suaning, G.J., ‘Process
Development for Dry Etching Polydimethylsiloxane for Neural Electrodes.’
33rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE EMBS, Boston,
Massachusetts USA, September 2011.
6. Aplin, F.P., Fletcher, E., Luu, C.D., Shepherd, R.K., Guymer, R.H., ‘Blind
feline model for retinal prosthesis.’ Second International Conference on
Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
7. Ayton, L.N., Luu, C.D., Guymer, R.H., ‘Choroidal Thickness in Retinitis
Pigmentosa.’ Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision
and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5 May 2011.
8. Barnes, N.M., Lieby, P., Dennett, H., McCarthy, C., Liu, N., Walker, J.G.,
‘Mobility Experiments with simulated vision and sensory substitution of
depth.’ Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and
Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5 May 2011. (Poster selected as “Hot
Topic”)
9. Barnes, N., Lieby, P., Dennett, H., McCarthy, C., Liu, N., Walker, J., Li, Y.,
‘Investigating the role of direct depth information in visually-guided
mobility,’ 11th Annual Meeting of the Vision Science Society, Florida,
USA, 6-11 May 2012.
10. Barnes, N.M., Walker, J.G., McCarthy, C.D., Botea, V., Scott, A.F.,
Dennett, H., Lieby, P., ‘Evaluating Depth-based Visual Representations
For Mobility In Simulated Prosthetic Vision.’ Annual Meeting of the
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 6-10
May.
11. Barrigara-Rivera, A., Suaning, G., ‘Digital image processing for visual
prosthesis: Filtering implications.’ 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering
in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA, September 2011.
12. Cameron, M., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H., Morley, J.W., ‘Electrical
activation of inner retinal neurons in wild-type and rd1 mice.’ Australian
Neuroscience Society Annual Conference 2012, Gold Coast, Australia, 29
January – 1 February 2012.
13. Cameron, M.A., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H., Morley, J.W., ‘Electrical
activation of inner retinal neurons.’ Submitted to Society for Neuroscience,
Washington, USA, 12-16 November 2011.
14. Chaekyung, L., Seo, J., Chen, S., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H., Green, R.A.
(2011), ‘Stability of conducting polymers in neural stimulating implants.’
Neuroprosthetic Devices Conference, Sydney, Australia 25-26 November
2011.
15. Chen, S.C., Matteucci, P.B., Dokos, S., Morley, J.W., Lovell, N.H.,
Suaning, G.J., ‘A 3D spiking activity strength-duration model of cortical
response to suprachoroidal retinal stimulation.’ Neuroprosthetic Devices
Conference, Sydney, Australia, 25-26 November 2011.
16. Chung, H., Che, C.W., Bae, S.H., Lee, S.W., Koo, K.I., Seo, J.M.,
Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H., Cho, D., Kim, S.J., ‘In vitro bio compatibility of
various polymers for retinal prosthesis.’ Annual Meeting of the Association
for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5 May 2011.
17. Cicione, R., Shivdasani, M.N., Fallon, J.B., Luu, C.D., Allen, P.J.,
Rathbone, G., Williams, C.E., ‘Efficacy of electrode return configuration in
a suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis.’ Annual Meeting of the Association for
Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5 May 2011.
18. Dodds, C.W., Schuettler, M., Guenther, T., Lovell, N.H., Suaning, G.J.,
‘Advancements in electrode design and laser techniques for fabricating
micro-electrode arrays as part of a retinal prosthesis.’ 33rd IEEE
Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA,
September 2011.
19. Eiber, C., Suaning, G.J., ‘Trends in Retinal Ganglion Cell Threshold in
Visual Prosthesis.’ Proc. International Conference of Neuroprosthetic
Devices, Sydney, Australia 25-26 November 2011.
20. Fletcher, E.L., Vessey, K.A., Jobling, AI., ‘The role of P2X7 receptors in
exacerbating photoreceptor death in the Rd1 mouse model of retinal
degeneration.’ Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision
and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5 May 2011.
21. Fox, K., Garrett, D.J., Greferath, U., Fletcher E., Vessey K., Allen P.,
Ganesan, K., Meffin M., Prawer, S., ‘Diamond as an implantable material.’
Ninth World Biomaterials Congress, Chengdu, China, 1-5 June 2012.
22. Ganesan, K., Garrett, D., Fox, K., Meffin, H., Prawer, S., ‘Diamond
microelectorde array for High-Acuityretinal prosthesis.’ Ninth World
Biomaterials Congress, Chengdu, China, 1-5 June 2012.
23. Ganesan, K., Stacey, A., Garrett, D., Fox, K., Meffin, H., Prawer, S., ‘A
monolithic diamond microelectrode array for High-Acuity retinal
prosthesis.’ Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip
Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
24. Garrett, D.J., Ganesan, K., Stacey, A., Fox, K., Meffin, H., Prawer, S.,
‘Ultra-nanocrystalline diamond electrodes: Optimisation for neural
Stimulation.’ Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip
Island, Australia,
20-23 November 2011.
25. Green, R.A., Bouchinet, L., Byrnes-Preston, P., Suaning, G.J., PooleWarren, L.A., Lovell, N.H. ‘Stability of conducting polymer coatings under
neural stimulation for implant lifetimes.’ Second International Conference
on Medical Bionics,
Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
26. Green, R.A., Duan, C., Hassarati, R., Goding, J., Byrnes-Preston, P.J.,
Suaning, G.J., Poole-Warren, L.A., Lovell, N.H., ‘Electrochemical stability
of poly(ethylene dioxythiophene) electrodes.’ Proc. Fifth International IEEE
Neural Engineering Conference, Cancun, Mexico, 28 April-1 May 2011.
27. Green., R.A., Hassarati., R.T., Lovell, N.H., Martens., P.J., Poole-Warren,
L.A., ‘Conductive hydrogel electrodes for stimulating neuroprostheses.’
World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Beijing,
China, 26-31 May 2011.
28. Greferath, U., O’Brien, E.E., Kallionatis, M., Fletcher, E.L., ‘Characterising
retinal degeneration in a novel mouse model of retinitis pigmentosa.’
Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and
Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5 May 2011.
29. Guenther, T., Dodds, D., Lovell, N.H., Suaning, G.J., ‘Chip-scale hermetic
feedthroughs for implantable bionics.’ 33rd IEEE Conference on
Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA, September 2011.
30. Guenther, T., Apoorv, M., Lim, W.W., Jung, L.H., Lehmann, T., Lovell,
N.H., Suaning, G.J., ‘Laser-mircomachined, chip-scaled ceramic carriers
for implantable neurostimulators.’ 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering
in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA, September 2011.
31. Guo, T., Tsai, D., Lovell, N.H., Dokos, S., ‘A modified retinal ganglia cell
model.’ Neuroprosthetic Devices Conference, Sydney, Australia, 25-26
November 2011.
32. Habib, A.G., Cameron, M.A., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H., Morley, J.W.,
‘Retinal ganglion cell thresholds to electrical stimulation using hexagonal
guard return and monopolar return configurations.’ Australian
Neuroscience Society 32nd Annual Meeting, Gold Coast, Australia, 29
January-1 February 2012.
33. Hadjinicolaou, A.E., Hietanen, M.A., Suaning, G.J., Ibbotson, M.R.,
Cloherty, S.L., ‘Focal activation of visual cortex through suprachoroidal
electrical stimulation of the retina.’ Australasian Neuroscience Society,
Auckland, New Zealand, 31 January-3 February 2011.
34. Hadjinicolaou, A.E., Kameneva, T., Wong, R., Grayden, D.B., Burkitt,
A.N., Meffin, H., O’Brien, B., ‘Sinusoidal stimulation of retinal ganglion
cells: computational model and experimental results.’ Second International
Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November
2011.
35. Hadjinicolaou, A.E., Kameneva, T., Wong, R., Grayden, D.B., Cloherty,
S.L., Ibbotson, M.R., Burkitt, A.N., Meffin, H., O’Brien, B., ‘Sinusoidal
stimulation of retinal ganglion cells: computational model and experimental
results.’ Proc. 32nd Annual Meeting of Australian Neuroscience Society,
Gold Coast, Australia, 29 January-1 February 2012.
36. He, X., Shen, C., Barnes, N.M., ‘Face detection and tracking in video to
facilitate face recognition in a visual prosthesis.’ Annual Meeting of the
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5
May 2011.
37. Horne, L., Barnes, N., McCarthy, C., He, X., ‘Object Detection for Bionic
Vision.’ Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip
Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
38. Jung, L.H., Shany, N., Lehmann, T., Byrnes-Preston, P., Lovell, N.H.,
‘Towards a chip scale neurostimulator: system architecture of a currentdriven 98 channel neurostimulator via a two-wire interface.’ 33rd IEEE
Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA,
September 2011.
39. Kameneva, T., Grayden, D.B., Meffin, H., Burkitt, A., ‘Simulating electrical
stimulation of degenerative retinal ganglion cells with bi-phasic pulse
trains.’ 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology,
Boston, USA, September, 2011.
40. Kameneva, T., Hadjinicolaou, A., Wong, R., Grayden, D.B., Burkitt, A.N.,
Meffin, H., O’Brien., B., ‘Simulating electrical stimulation of degenerative
retinal ganglion cells with bi-phasic pulse trains.’ Second International
Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November
2011.
41. Kameneva, T., Meffin, H., Burkitt, A.N., ‘ON and OFF retinal ganglion
cells: response to sinusoidal stimulation.’ 32nd Annual Meeting of
Australian Neuroscience Society, Gold Coast, Australia, 29 January-1
February 2012.
42. Kameneva, T., Meffin, H., Grayden, D.B., Burkitt. A.N., ‘Sinusoidal
stimulation of retinal bipolar cells: a modelling study.’ The Ninth IASTED
International Conference on Biomedical Engineering, Innsbruck, Austria,
15-17 February 2012.
43. Khalili Moghaddam, G., Dokos, S., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H., Wilke,
R.G.H., ‘Electric crosstalk impairs spatial resolution when using
multielectrode arrays for retinal implants.’ Annual Meeting of the
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5
May 2011.
44. Khalili Moghaddam, G., Wilke, R., Dokos, S., Suaning, G.J., Novell, N.H.
(2011), ‘Electrode design to optimise ganglion cell activation in retinal
neuroprosthesis: A modeling study.’ Proc. IEEE Neural Engineering,
Cancun, Mexico, 28 April-1 May 2011, 4pp.
45. Kim, J., He, X., Barnes, N., ‘Automatic Face Zooming and Its Stability
Analysis on a Phosphene Display.’ Second International Conference on
Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
46. Kiral-Kornek, F.I., Savage, C.O., ‘Saliency under Phosphenated Vision.’
Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island,
Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
47. Kiral-Kornek, F.I., Savage, C.O., Grayden, D.B., ‘The Focus of Attention
under Phosphenated Vision through Retinal Implants.’ Seventh
International Conference on Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and
Information Processing, Adelaide, Australia, 6-9 December 2011.
48. Leung ,R.T., Nayagam, D.A., Williams, C.E., Shepherd, R.K., Williams,
R.A., Luu, C.D., Allen, P.J., Salinas-La Rosa, C.M., Freemantle, A.,
McPhedran, M., Basa, M., Yeoh, J., McCombe, M., Ayton, L.N., Bowman,
E.A., Villalobos, J., ‘Removability of a suprachoroidal retina prosthesis.’
Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island,
Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
49. Lichter, S., Garrett, D., Ganesan, K., Fox K., Prawer, S., ‘A fully hermetic
diamond encapsulation for a High-Acuityretinal prosthesis.’ Ninth World
Biomaterials Congress, Chengdu, China, 1-5 June 2012.
50. Lieby, P., Barnes, N., McCarthy, C., Scott, A.F., Botea, V., Walker, J.G.,
‘Mobility Experiments Using Simulated Prosthetic Vision With 98
Phosphenes Of Limited Dynamic Range.’ Annual Meeting of the
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 6-10
May 2012. (Accepted – Poster)
51. Luu, C.D., ‘Optimising stimulation configuration for a suprachoroidal retinal
prosthesis.’ Asia-Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision
and Ophthalmology, Singapore, 20-23 January 2011.
52. Matteucci, P.B., Byrnes-Preston, P., Chen, S.C., Lovell, N.H., Suaning,
G.J., ‘ARM-based visual processing system for prosthetic vision.’ 33rd
IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA,
September 2011.
53. Maturana, M., Kameneva, T., Meffin, H., Grayden, D.B., Burkitt, A.N.,
‘Computational model: effect
of morphology on a constrained ionic conductance parameter set for ON
and OFF retinal ganglion cells.’ Second International Conference on
Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
54. Maturana, M., Kameneva, T., Meffin, H., Grayden, D.B., Burkitt, A.N.,
‘Constraining the persistent sodium current in ON and OFF retinal
ganglion cells.’ Students in Brain Research Conference 2011, Melbourne,
Australia, 6 October 2011.
55. McCarthy, C., Lieby, P., Walker, J.G., Scott, A.F., Botea, V., Barnes, N.,
‘Low Contrast Trip Hazard Avoidance using Simulated Prosthetic Vision.’
Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and
Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 6-10 May 2012. (Accepted – Presentation)
56. Meffin, H., Tahayori, B., Grayden, D., Burkitt, A., ‘What determines the
response of a neuron to electrical stimulation: charge or electric field.’
Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island,
Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
57. Meffin, H., Tahayori, B., Kameneva, T., Grayden, D.B., Burkitt, A.N.,
‘Comparing longitudinal and transverse modes of electrical stimulation of
neural fibres.’ Australasian Neuroscience Society, Auckland, New
Zealand, 31 January-3 February 2011.
58. Nayagam, D.A., Allen, P.J., Shivdasani, M.N., Fallon, J.B., Yeoh, J., Wise,
A., Luu, C.D., Freemantle, A.L., McPhedran, M.E., Williams, R.A., Basa,
M., Villalobos, J., Bowman, E., Shepherd, R.K,. Williams, C.E., ‘A clinically
relevant approach for long-term stimulation by active suprachoroidal
implants in cats.’ Second International Conference on Medical Bionics,
Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
59. Nayagam, D.A.X., Allen, P.J., Shivdasani, M.N., Fallon, J., Yeoh, J., Wise,
A., Luu, C.D., Freemantle, A., McPhedran, M., Williams, R.A., Basa, M.,
Bowman, E., Shepherd, R.K., Williams, C.E., ‘A Pre-Clinical Model For
Chronic Electrical Stimulation Of The Retina Via Suprachoroidal
Electrodes.’ NHMRC 75th Anniversary Symposium, Canberra, Australia,
29 November-1 December 2011.
60. Nayagam, D.A.X., Allen, P.J., Shivdasani, M.N., Fallon, J., Yeoh, J., Wise,
A., Luu, C.D., Freemantle, A., McPhedran, M., Williams, R.A., Basa, M.,
Bowman, E., Shepherd, R.K., Williams, C.E., ‘A Pre-Clinical Model For
Chronic Electrical Stimulation Of The Retina Via Suprachoroidal
Electrodes.’ Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip
Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
61. Nayagam, D.A.X., Villalobos, J., Allen, P.J., Luu, C.D., McVelvie, P.,
Freemantle, A.L., McPhedran, M.E., Basa, M., Shepherd, R.K., Williams,
C.E., ‘A suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis is safe in a chronic implantation
model.’ Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and
Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5 May 2011.
62. Nayagam, D.A., Villalobos, J., Allen, P.J., Luu, C.D., McKelvie, P.,
Freemantle, A.L., McPhedran, M.E., Basa, M., McGowan, C.C., Shepherd,
R.K., Williams, C.E., ‘A suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis is safe in a
chronic implantation model.’ Second International Conference on Medical
Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
63. Ng, D.C., Wang, X., Felic, G.K., Bai, S., Boyd, C.S., Halpern, M., Skafidas,
E., ‘Specific absorption rate distribution on a human head model from
inductive power coils.’ EMC Europe, York, UK, 26-30 September.
64. Ng, D., Williams, C.E., Allen, P.A., Bai, S., Boyd, C., Meffin, H., Halpern,
M., Skafidas, E., ‘Wireless power delivery for retina prostheses.’ 33rd
IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA,
September 2011.
65. O’Brien, E.E., Fletcher, E.L., Greferath, U., ‘Characterising remodelling
events in the inner retina of aged rd1 mice.’ 31st Annual Meeting of the
Australian Neuroscience Society, Auckland, New Zealand, 31 January-3
February 2011.
66. O’Brien, E.E., Greferath, U., Fletcher, E.L., ‘Ganglion cells have altered
morphology in the aged degenerated retina.’ Second International
Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November
2011.
67. Opie, N.L., Vessey, K., Greferath, U., Burkitt, A.N., Grayden, D.B., Meffin,
H., Fletcher, E.L. ‘Thermal and mechanical trauma induced by retinal
implants: In vitro assessment of morphological alterations in rat retinal
microglia. Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip
Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
68. Rozario, A., Fox, K., Garrett, D., Lichter, S., Ganesan, K., Meffin, H.,
Prawer, S., ‘Optimizing adhesion of parylene-C to diamond under longterm in-vivo conditions.’ 36th Annual Condensed Matter and Materials
Meeting, Wagga Wagga, Australia, 31 January-3 February 2012. (Poster
presentation)
69. Savage, C.O., ‘Eye position prediction in the case of Nystagmus and
Refixations.’ 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine and
Biology, Boston, USA, September 2011.
70. Savage, C.O., ‘Psychophysical Test Requirement Reduction via Taguchi
Methods.’ Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip
Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
71. Savage, C.O., Grayden, D.B., Meffin, H., Burkitt, A., ‘Predicting
phosphene elicitation in patients
with retinal implants: A mathematical study.’ 33rd IEEE Conference on
Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA, September 2011.
72. Savage, C.O., Halpern, M.E., ‘Phosphene Brightness Modelling for
Voltage Driven Waveform.’ Seventh International Conference on
Intelligent Sensors, Sensor Networks and Information Processing,
Adelaide, Australia, 6-9 December 2011.
73. Sergeev, E., Meffin, H., Tahayori, B., Burkitt, A., Grayden, D., Shivasani,
M., Williams, C., ‘The reduction of thresholds when stimulating the retina
with electrodes simultaneously is explained by current spread.’ Second
International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 2023 November 2011.
74. Shivdasani, M.N., Fallon, J.B., Luu, C.D., Cicione, R., Allen, P.J., Morley,
J.W., Williams, C.E., ‘Cortical responses to single and multiple-electrode
stimulation of a suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis.’ Annual Meeting of the
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5
May 2011.
75. Shivdasani, M.N., Fallon, J.B., Luu, C.D., Cicione, R., Allen, P.J., Morley,
J.W., Williams, C.E., ‘Multiunit responses in the visual cortex to single and
multiple electrode stimulation of the retina.’ Second International
Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November
2011.
76. Slonim, E., Fox, K., Garrett, D., Meffin, H., Prawer, S., ‘Effect of protein on
electrochemical properties of diamond.’ 36th Annual Condensed Matter
and Materials Meeting, Wagga Wagga, Australia, 31 January – 3 February
2012. (Oral presentation)
77. Tahayori, B., ‘Comparing longitudinal and transverse modes of electrical
stimulation in neural fibres.’ Australasian Neuroscience Society, Auckland,
New Zealand, February 2011.
78. Tahayori, B., Meffin, H., Venables, N., Grayden, D.B., Burkitt, A.,
‘Theoretical framework to estimate conductivity map of the retina through
finite element analysis.’ 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine
and Biology, Boston, USA, September 2011.
79. Tsai, D., Morley, J.W., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H., ‘Activation of voltagegated ion channels in retinal ganglion cells following electrical stimulation
of the retina.’ Australasian Neuroscience Society, Auckland, New Zealand,
February 2011.
80. Tsai, D., Morley, J.W., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H., ‘Responses of starburst
amacrine cells to prosthetic stimulation of the retina.’ 33rd IEEE
Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Boston, USA,
September 2011.
81. Tsai, D., Morley, J.W., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H. (2011), ‘Sodium
channel inactivation reduces retinal ganglion cell responsiveness to
repetitive prosthetic stimulation.’ Proc. IEEE Neural Engineering, Cancun,
Mexico, 28 April-1 May 2011, 4pp.
82. Tsai, D., Morley, J.W., Suaning, G.J., Lovell, N.H., ‘Temporal response
profiles of amacrine cells following electrical stimulation of the retina.’
Submitted to Society for Neuroscience, Washington, USA, 12-16
November 2011.
83. Venables, N., Tahayori, B., Meffin, H., Grayden, D., Burkitt, A.,
‘Determining the Impedance of the Retinal Layers from Noisy Voltage
Measurements.’ Fifth Australian Workshop on Computational
Neuroscience, Sydney, Australia, 13-14 December 2011.
84. Venables, N., Tahayori, B., Meffin, H., Grayden, D., Burkitt, A., ‘Estimating
the electrical impedance of a retina using finite element modelling.’
Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island,
Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
85. Villalobos, J., Allen, P.J., Freemantle, A.L., Nayagam, D.A., Luu, C.D.,
Ayton, L.N., McPhedran, M.E., Shepherd, R.K., Williams, C.E., ‘A
contoured suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis allows safe post-surgical
recovery.’ Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip
Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
86. Villalobos, J., Nayagam, D.A., Allen, P.J., Luu, C.D., Fallon, J.B.,
Shivdasani, M.N., Freemantle, A.L., McPhedran, M., Shepherd, R.K.,
Williams, C.E., ‘A wide-field suprachoroidal retinal prosthesis reliably
elicits cortical activity after chronic implantation.’ Annual Meeting of the
Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 1-5
May 2011.
87. Villalobos, J., Nayagam, D.A., Allen, P.J., Luu, C.D., Fallon, J.B.,
Shivdasani, M.N., Freemantle, A.L., McPhedran, M.E., Shepherd, R.K.,
Williams, C.E., ‘A wide-field retinal prosthesis elicits cortical activity after
chronic implantation.’ Second International Conference on Medical
Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
88. Villalobos, J., Allen, P.J., McCombe, M.F., McPhedran, M., Shepherd,
RK., Williams, C., ‘Implantation trauma of a wide-field suprachoroidal
retinal prosthesis.’ Second International Conference on Medical Bionics,
Phillip Island, Australia,
20-23 November 2011.
89. Villalobos, J., Nayagam, D.A.X., Allen, P.J., Luu, C.D., McKelvie, P.,
Freemantle, A., McPhedran, M., Basa, M., McGowan, C.C., Shepherd,
R.K., Williams, C.E., ‘A wide-field retinal prosthesis is well tolerated in the
suprachoroidal space.’ Second International Conference on Medical
Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
90. Walker, J., Barnes, N., Lieby, P., McCarthy, C., Dennett, H., ‘The impact
of environment complexity on mobility performance for prosthetic vision
using the visual representation of depth.’ The Royal Australian and New
Zealand College
of Ophthalmologists 43rd Annual Scientific Congress: Sharing the Vision,
Canberra, Australia, 19-22 November 2011.
91. Wilke, R., ‘Psychophysics and Clinical Performance of Retinal
Prostheses.’ Second International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip
Island, Australia, 20-23 November 2011.
92. Wilke, R.G., Khalili Moghaddam, G., Lovell, N., Dokos, S., Suaning, G.,
‘Multipolar Return Configurations In Microelectrode Arrays Designed For
Retinal Implants: Modeling Effects On Threshold Levels And Dynamic
Range.’ Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and
Ophthalmology, Florida, USA, 6-10 May 2012. (Accepted for poster)
93. Wong, R., Marginson, M., Cloherty, S.L., Ibbotson, M.R., O’Brien, B.,
‘Spike waveform analysis can reliably identify some re ganglion cell types.’
Proc. 32nd Annual Meeting of the Australian Neuroscience Society, Gold
Coast, Australia,
29 January-1 February 2012.
94. Wong, R.C.S., Raj, D.S., Cloherty, S.L., Ibbotson, M.R., O’Brien, B.J.,
‘Intrinsic physiological properties of rat retinal ganglion cells.’ Australasian
Neuroscience Society, Auckland, New Zealand, February 2011.
95. Yin, S., Lovell, N.H., Suaning, G.J., Dokos, S., ‘Bionic Vision – A retinal
network model.’ Australasian Neuroscience Society, Auckland, New
Zealand, February 2011.
96. Yin, S., Lovell, N.H., Suaning, G.J., Dokos, S., ‘Continuum model of light
response in the retina.’ 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine
and Biology. Boston, USA, September 2011.
97. Yin, S., Lovell, N.H., Suaning, G.J., Dokos, S., ‘Pseudo-bidomain
computational model of the retinal architecture.’ Neuroprosthetic Devices
Conference, Sydney, Australia, 25-26 November.
Invitations to present at Peer-Reviewed Internationally
Recognised Conferences received in 2011
1. Allen, P.J., McCombe, M.F., Yeoh, J., Luu, C.D., Villalobos, J.,
Shivdasani, M., Nayagam, D., Lovell, N.H, Suaning, G.J, Williams, C.,
Shepherd, R., Guymer, R.H., ‘To develop a cat model for chronic active
stimulation with a wide-field suprachoroidal array to aid in the development
of a human low resolution device.’ The Retina Society 44th Annual
Scientific Meeting, Rome, Italy, 21-25 September 2011.
2. Barnes, N., ‘Computer vision for the Bionic Eye.’ University of Maryland,
September 2011.
3. Fletcher, E., Retina Australia Biannual Conference, Sydney, Australia,
October 2012.
4. Fletcher, E., ‘Inherited Retinal Disease.’ Southern Regional Congress,
Melbourne, Australia, May 2012.
5. Fletcher, E., ‘Inner retinal modelling following photoreceptor death:
problem or epiphenomenon?’ Australian College of Optometry Annual
Conference, 22 October 2011.
6. Fletcher, E., Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology Congress, Sydney,
Australia,
20-24 March 2011.
7. Fox, K., Garrett, D.J., Ganesan, K., Meffin, H., Prawer, S., ‘The Bionic
Eye: Adventures towards an all-diamond multi-electrode array.’ BITs 2nd
Annual World Congress of Nanomedicine, Shenzhen, China, 2-5
November 2011.
8. Garrett, D.J., MacDiarmid Student and Post Doc Symposium, Wellington,
New Zealand, 18-19 November 2011.
9. Guymer, R., Distinctive Voices at the Beckham Centre, Irvine, California,
25 January 2012.
10. Guymer, R.H., ‘Electronic restoration of vision.’ Asia Pacific Academy of
Ophthalmology Congress, Sydney, Australia, 20-24 March 2011.
11. Guymer, R.H., ‘The challenge and promise of the bionic eye.’ Asia-Annual
Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology,
Singapore, 20-23 January 2011.
12. Ibbotson, M., ‘Developing a Bionic Eye in Australia.’ Australian Vision
Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, 29 April-1 May 2011.
13. Ibbotson, M.R., ‘In vivo and in vitro measurements of the efficacy of bionic
eye implants.’ Asia-Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in
Vision and Ophthalmology, Singapore, 20-23 January 2011.
14. Lichter, S., ‘The Australian Bionic Eye: A Vision for the Future.’ 20th
Annual AHRDMA Annual Scientific Meeting, Canberra, Australia, 17-18
March 2011.
15. Lovell, N.H., ‘How Medical Device Technologies are Supporting Aging in
Place.’ Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability,
Aging and Technology including Rehabilitation Society of North America,
Toronto, Canada, 5-8 June 2011.
16. Lovell, N.H., ‘Biosignal processing and bioelectronics for wearable and
implantable medical devices.’ International Symposium on Bioelectronics
and Bioinformatics, Suzhou, China, 3-5 November 2011.
17. Lovell, N.H., ‘Technologies for ageing-in-place: From implantable bionics
to biomonitoring.’ The Eighth IASTED International Conference on
Biomedical Engineering, Innsbruck, Austria, 16-18 February 2011.
18. Lovell, N.H., ‘From falls prevention to vision restoration: medical device
technologies for improving quality of life.’ 10th International Workshop on
Biomedical Engineering, Kos-Helona, Greece, 5-7 October.
19. Prawer, S., pres. by Garrett, D.J., ‘Best friend for the blind: The Bionic Eye
project.’ International Materials Research Congress, 14-19 August 2011,
Cancun Mexico.
20. Savage, C.O., ‘Bionic Vision Australia.’ Biology Seminar Series, South
Carolina, USA, September 2011.
21. Suaning, G., IDA Congress on Biotechnology, Taipei, October 2011.
22. Suaning G,J., ‘Significant advances in retinal degenerative diseases.’
Cátedra de Investigación en Retinosis Pigmentosa Bidons Egara, Elche,
Spain, September 2011.
23. Suaning, G.J., ‘The next generation of visual neuroprosthesis: a two-wire,
split-system approach.’ 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine
and Biology, Boston, USA, September 2011.
24. Suaning, G.J., ‘The supra-choroidal space: the place to be for retinal
prosthesis?’ 33rd IEEE Conference on Engineering in Medicine and
Biology, Boston, USA, September 2011.
25. Suaning G. ‘Visual Prosthesis – an engineer’s perspective.’ Second
International Conference on Medical Bionics, Phillip Island, Australia, 2023 November 2011. (Invited presentation)
26. Tahayori, B., ‘Key challenges of a retinal prosthesis.’ Vienna University of
Technology, Vienna, Austria,
20 December 2011.
Published Books, Book Chapters or other publications (including
published lecture notes)
1. Fox, K. (2011), ‘Building a bionic eye’ in Physics World, vol. 24, no. 12, pp.
44-45.
Community Outreach Presentations (schools, universities,
professional organisations, general public, vision impaired
community) given in 2011
1. Ayton, L., Retina Australia Annual General Meeting, Adelaide, Australia,
22 October 2011.
2. Ayton, L., ‘The Bionic Eye – What will it mean for people who are blind or
have low vision?’ Vision Australia 30th Annual Round Table on Information
Access for People with Diabetes, Melbourne, Australia, 20-22 May 2011.
3. Ayton, L., Guide Dogs Victoria Annual General Meeting, 7 December
4. Ayton L. ‘Seeing the future: The Bionic Eye.’ The Australian Institute of
Medical and Biological Illustration, Melbourme, Australia, 20 July 2011.
5. Ayton, L., National Conference for Blind Citizens Australia, Adelaide,
Australia, 15 October 2011.
6. Ayton, L., ‘IT enables: Life, choices and participation forum.’ Social
Inclusion week and International Day of People with Disability, State
Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 25 November 2011.
7. Brawn, T-L.E., ‘The Australian Bionic Eye.’ Victorian Science Talent
Search, Melbourne, Australia, October 2011.
8. Burkitt, A., ‘Retinal Implant Development for the Sight Impaired: An
overview of the Bionic Vision Australia Research Program.’ Melbourne
Neuroscience Seminar Series, Melbourne, Australia, 8 June 2011.
9. Fletcher, E., Retina Australia Annual General Meeting, Adelaide, Australia,
22 October 2011.
10. Fletcher, E., University of Melbourne: Kwong-Lee Dow Scholarship
holders information session, Melbourne, Australia, 8 December 2011.
11. Fletcher, E., ‘Development of a bionic eye in Australia.’ Melbourne
Schools Partnership International, Melbourne, Australia, 4-5 August 2011.
12. Fletcher, E., ‘The development of a bionic eye.’ Brain-Bee of the
Australian Neuroscience Society, Melbourne, Australia, 27 June.
13. Fox, K., Garrett, D.J., Ganesan, K., Meffin, H., Prawer, S., ‘The Bionic
Eye.’ Howard Hughes School of Engineering, Nevada, USA, October
2011.
14. Guenther, T., (Finalist) Dean’s Award for Excellence in Postgraduate
Research, Faculty of Engineering UNSW, Sydney, Australia, 27 October
2011.
15. Guymer, R., Royal Society of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 10 November
2011.
16. Kameneva, T., ‘Bionic Eye.’ NICTA High School outreach, Melbourne,
Australia, August 2011.
17. Lovell, N.H., ‘The science fiction and science fact behind an Australian
bionic eye.’ CHAST public lecture, UniSyd (telecast ABC radio), Sydney,
Australia, 15 August 2011.
18. Ng, D., ‘Bionic Eye – from an engineering perspective.’ Low Vision
Services Expo, Bairnsdale, Victoria, 19 May 2011.
19. O’Brien, E., ‘Inner retinal changes during late stage degeneration.’
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Melbourne University, Australia,
March 2011.
20. Prawer, S., Nano-in-medicine symposium, Melbourne Brain Centre, 14
November 2011.
21. Savage, C., ‘Bionic Vision Australia.’ NICTA High School outreach,
Melbourne, Australia, October, 2011.
22. Suaning, G., ‘Bionic Ears and Eyes.’ Museum of Human Disease, Sydney,
Australia, 28 March 2011.
23. Tahayori, B., ‘Overview of the Australian Bionic Eye. Early Career
Researcher Workshop: Healthy Living.’ Birmingham, UK, 13-15 December
2011.
24. Tsai, D.T., ‘Large-scale analysis of the retinal network’s responses to
electrical stimulation: implications for brain science and neuroprosthetics.’
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Massachusetts,
USA, 2 September 2011.
Inside the bionic eye
Researchers are fine-tuning and optimising the design of the Wide-View device
and pushing ahead with an intensive program of preclinical safety and efficacy
testing in preparation for the first patient tests in 2013.
Patient tests with the High-Acuity device will be conducted in stages to enable
progressive development. The first set of patient tests in 2014 will use a
completely wired device. In the next stage of testing, researchers aim to use a
device with only some wiring, working towards a totally wireless system in the
final stage, where both data and power will be transferred wirelessly to the
implant.
More information about participation in patient tests is available at our website:
www.bionicvision.org.au/get_involved/test_participant
Bionic Vision Australia
Executive Office
203 Bouverie Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053
Australia
Postal address
PO Box 623
Carlton South, Victoria 3053
Australia
www.bionicvision.org.au
Bionic Vision Australia has used its best endeavours to ensure that the material
contained in this publication was correct at the time of printing. Copyright to
material in this publication is owned by members of Bionic Vision Australia.
Authorised by the Director. Published by Bionic Vision Australia, March 2012