Optogenetics and Vision

Abstract

The authors discuss the main strategies for returning vision to blind people: electronic and optogenetic prosthetics of degenerative (blind) retina. Primary attention is paid to the prospects of retinal prosthetics for the blind using the methods of modern optogenetics. Photosensitive retinal-containing proteins, rhodopsins, are considered as tools for such prosthetics. The question of which particular cells of the degenerative retina and which rhodopsins can be prosthetic, as well as the ways of delivering the rhodopsin genes to these cells, is discussed. In conclusion, the main provisions and problems related to optogenetic prosthetics of degenerative retina are formulated.