A Farmington medical-device startup got $40,000 from the state’s investment technology arm to develop a retina implant to perhaps enable patients with degenerative eye disease to see again.
Connecticut Innovations said its preseed stake in LambdaVision Inc. will enable the company to continue proof-of-concept studies on its man-made part of the eye akin to a movie screen onto which light is focused to generate an image that is relayed via the optic nerve to the brain.
LambdaVision also received matching funds from the University of Connecticut Research and Development Corp., CI said.
LambdaVision CEO Nicole Wagner said her company is collaborating its research with the Center for Innovative Visual Rehabilitation at the Boston VA Medical Center.
The retina implant has the potential to restore vision and improve the quality of life for patients affected by retinal degenerative diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and retinitis pigmentosa, Wagner said.