Elon Musk’s Neuralink joins bionic eye study

Neuralink, the neurotechnology company co-founded by Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, has joined a clinical trial aimed at restoring vision with full or partial blindness through visual prostheses, commonly known as bionic eyes.

According to an update posted on the federal register for clinical trials this week, the study named “AI-powered artificial vision for visual prostheses” is expected to enroll seven adults, including “Neuralink patients (once available).”

The study, sponsored by the University of California, Santa Barbara, has three primary objectives, including pattern discrimination accuracy and scene understanding performance in subjects implanted with a visual prosthesis.

Led by Dr. Michael Beyeler, who directs UC Santa Barbara’s Bionic Vision Lab, the trial includes the Spanish university Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche and California-based Neuralink as its collaborators.

The update, first reported by Bloomberg News, comes at a time when Neuralink is running two U.S.-based clinical trials, PRIME and CONVOY, designed to study its brain-computer interface in patients with limb paralysis.

The company has yet to launch U.S. clinical trials for its brain chip, Blindsight, which aims to restore vision in people with blindness.

Musk, who also leads internet service provider Starlink (STRLK) and space exploration company SpaceX (SPACE), previously said that Neuralink aims to implant Blindsight in a human for the first time later this year.