Noelle Stiles Awarded an NEI Grant to Study the Impact of Sensory Reorganization on Vision Restoration

Dr. Noelle Stiles, Assistant Professor of Neurology at the RWJMS and BHI Core Faculty, received an R00 grant from the National Eye Institute for the project “Restoring Sight to the Blind: Neural Imaging with Retinal Prostheses”. Retinal prostheses restore limited visual perception to the blind by stimulating still viable cells in the eye with an implanted device, particularly for patients with Retinitis Pigmentosa and potentially Age-Related Macular Degeneration. The study will investigate whether the sensory reorganization that occurs during blindness limits the restoration of vision with intraocular retinal prostheses, which may have implications for emerging alternative approaches such as stem cells and gene therapy as well. The study will advance the understanding of how the brain adapts to vision loss and subsequent vision restoration, which are key to improving patient selection, therapeutic choice, and visual rehabilitation outcomes.

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